PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 199 



blotch. (Pis. U and LXVI.) The eggs are usually 8 to 12, occasionally as many 

 as 14 in number, and are pale greenish grey as a rule, sometimes grey-buff or 

 rarely yellowish, but never so light a cream as those of the wigeon, which 

 otherwise they resemble. Average size of 100 eggs, 2-05 x T45 in. [52-2 x 37 mm.]. 

 (PI. T.) Incubation is performed by the duck alone, and lasts 23 to 24 days 

 (Heinroth in litt.). Other estimates vary from 21 to 28 days, but are probably 

 only approximate. Full clutches may be found exceptionally as early as the first 

 week of April, but usually about the third week in that month, and thence 

 onward through May, while in the Orkneys fresh eggs have been found till late 

 in June. Only one brood is reared during the season. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. The tender shoots of grass and other weeds and water-plants ; 

 but mainly on small Crustacea and other organisms obtained from mud, small 

 molluscs, and aquatic insects and larvae. The young feed mainly on aquatic 

 insects, and are guided in their search by the female, [w. p. P.] 



PINTAIL \Ddfila acuta (Linnaeus). Sea-pheasant. French, filet ; German, 

 Speiss-Ente ; Italian, codone]. 



I. Description. The adult pintail is to be distinguished by the speculum, 

 which is of a rich dark green, with purple and bronze reflections, and bounded 

 in front by a band of cinnamon formed by the tips of the major coverts, and behind 

 by a sub-marginal band of black and a very broad terminal fringe of white. The 

 sexes differ conspicuously, and there are distinct seasonal changes of plumage. 

 (PL 160.) Length 29 in. [736 mm.]. The male in his full dress has the head of a dark 

 brown with lilac gloss on each side, the back of the neck black ; the fore-neck 

 white, which, hi the form of a narrow band, is continued up the side of the neck 

 to the head ; while it extends downwards to include the whole of the under surface 

 save the flanks, which are vermiculated with narrow lines of grey and white. The 

 wing-coverts are of a brownish grey, while the long inner secondaries and elongated 

 hinder secondaries are black edged with white. The lateral upper tail-coverts 

 and the under tail-coverts are velvety black, the latter contrasting with a buff 

 patch on either side of the abdomen behind the flank feathers ; the central tail 

 feathers are black, and much elongated. The beak, legs, and toes are slate-grey ; 

 the iris is brown. In eclipse the fully adult bird has the head and neck pale 

 brown, finely striated with darker brown, but the crown is dusky, and round the 

 middle of the neck is an ill-defined whitish band, with grey striations. The base of 

 the hind-neck, interscapulars, scapulars, and rump are dusky with indistinct grey 



