128 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



general dicta, ascribing these habits invariably to this or that 

 species, much confusion and inconvenience may be attributed. 



As an instance, I will merely state here, what I shall go into 

 more laro;ely hereafter, that the common Quail, Ortyx Virginia- 

 na, which is to the Westward distinctly a bird of passage, 

 with easily defined habits of migration, eastward of the Dela- 

 ware River is unquestionably stationary ; and that from, this 

 undoubted fact, a question has arisen whether there were not 

 two different species ; and, that hypothesis proved untenable, 

 a doubt, among the less enlightened of Eastern sportsmen, whe- 

 ther the naturalists and travellers who have insisted on the 

 migratory habits of the Quail, especially on the Ohio and other 

 large western rivers, have not ignorantl}' or wilfully falsified 

 the truth. 



Such mistakes should be guarded against with care, and all 

 conflicting statements, as made by candid and earnest enquirers, 

 regarded with the utmost liberality and allowance ; which, I 

 regret to say, is too seldom practised by naturalists, who fre- 

 quently appear to regard all who differ from themselves, much 

 in the light of enemies, or of heretics, with whom no terms are 

 to be kept. 



The last water-fowl, of which I shall give a minute descrip- 

 tion as falling under the head of Upland Game, is the 



PINTAIL DUCK. 



Anas Acuta — Wilson. Le Canard a Longue Queue — Brissott. 

 The Winter Duck, Sprigtail, Pigeontail, vulgo. 



" Male 29.36. Female 22i34. 



" From Texas throughout the interior to the Columbia 

 River, and along the Atlantic coast to Maine, during the 

 winter, and early spring. Breeds in the Arctic regions. 

 Abundant. 



