132 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



like the Mallards. On the water, on land, or on the wing, se- 

 veral may generally be killed at a shot. They are scarcely noc- 

 turnal, but rest much in the middle of the day ; basking in the 

 sunshine whilst on the water, whenever they can indulge in this 

 luxury. 



" The flight of the Pintails is very rapid, greatly protracted, 

 and almost noiseless. They remain at night in the ponds where 

 they feed ; and continue there generally, unless much disturbed. 

 On such occasions they keep in the middle of the Avater, to 

 avoid their land enemies. In the Middle States they are highly 

 esteemed for the table. There they arrive later, and retire 

 sooner toward their breeding places, than in the country west 

 of the Alleghany Mountains." — Audubon'' s Birds of America 



This species, like the last, is seldom found, in the northern 

 part of the Middle and Eastern States, in such large flocks, as 

 it would appear to use in the West. It is often found soli- 

 tary ; and very seldom, in my own experience, are more than 

 three or four to be found in company. 



I entertain some suspicion that the Pintail Duck occasionally 

 breeds in New Jersey and in New York. In the former State, 

 on one occasion, I shot an adult female bird, in full plumage, as 

 late as the twelfth of May. She rose, before a dead point from 

 an old setter, out of a thick tuft of alders on a large marsh mea- 

 dow. I could find no traces of a nest, but can conceive no 

 object but that of nidification which should have induced the 

 bird to seek such a haunt. I have several times shot these birds 

 during spring Snipe-shooting, so late as the end of April. 



The American Widgeon, Anas Americana^ is occasionally 

 found on fresh waters, especially to the westward of the Ohio ; 

 but rarely frequents rivers, except on their estuaries and sand- 

 bars, where it associates more with the FuUgula^ or Sea Ducks, 

 than with its immediate congeners. It is found on the Chesa- 

 peake with the Canvass-back, and is known as the " Bald- 

 pate." 



