228 THE SHELDUCK AND SURFACE-FEEDING DUCKS 



and down over the marsh, the male chasing the female in evidently 

 playful mood, and during such excursions they display amazing skill 

 in turning and diving through space. 



Polyandry seems occasionally to take place, and when this is so 

 the additional male is generally immature. As a rule, among the 

 ducks the care of the young is left entirely to the female, but the male 

 shoveler will sometimes display some anxiety on their behalf if he 

 deems them to be in danger, by flying round and round uttering a 

 curious call, something between a croak and a quack. According to 

 Lydekker, 1 at least one instance is known wherein the drake "to some 

 extent" took part in the incubation of the eggs ; but, as he remarks, 

 if there has been no mistake in this matter, it is hardly likely to be 

 a solitary example. It is to be hoped that some effort, then, will 

 be made to confirm or contradict this statement, after careful 

 observation. 



THE PINTAIL 

 [W. P. PTCRAFT] 



Among the many attributes of the pintail, beauty, both of form 

 and coloration, occupies a conspicuous place, at any rate so far as 

 the male is concerned, though this is not of such a transcending 

 character as to overshadow the striking personalities of its congeners 

 the mallard, shoveler, teal, wigeon, and garganey, which are all, each 

 in its own way, beautiful. But in some ways the pintail is more 

 interesting than any of these ; and this because it seems to have 

 preserved more links with the past in the matter of plumage changes 

 than any of the others. We hold to this view on account of the 

 plumage changes revealed by a study of the eclipse dress of the male 



1 The Sportsman's Book of British Birds, p. 320. 



