PINTAIL 



Dafila acuta 



HE Pintail is a common winter visitor to the British Islands; 

 it appears to be much rarer on the West coast than on 

 the East, and is only an accidental straggler to the Hebrides. 

 I have observed many flocks of Pintails in Orkney during 

 the winter, and in Shetland I watched a pair for several 

 days during the summer, which were evidently breeding 

 near a loch in the south of the mainland. During the 

 last few years a regular eruption of Pintails has broken out on one or two 

 lochs in central Scotland, and in a few years the Pintail will probably be as 

 common as the Tufted Duck. In England a few pairs are supposed to breed 

 in some of the preserved districts, and it has been recorded as breeding in at 

 least three of the Irish counties. 



The Pintail belongs to the fresh-water group of Ducks. During the breeding 

 season it frequents the moors, lakes, rivers, and swamps, but retires to the 

 seacoast during winter to feed on the mud-flats at low tide. In its habits it 

 closely resembles the Mallard, but is much more shy and wary. It is one of 

 the earliest Ducks to arrive in spring, being often observed early in March, 

 and does not leave again for the south till late in October, or early in November 

 if the season be an open one. The Pintail's long neck and pointed tail give 

 it a much more slender appearance than that of most Ducks ; it is very much 

 more graceful on the ground, too, and runs along without the ungainly waddle 

 which most Ducks have. In Shetland I watched a pair for several days ; they 

 always associated with a small flock of tame ducks, and very graceful they 

 looked beside their clumsy relatives. 



The Pintail feeds on insects and molluscs, grass shoots, and buds of various 

 water-plants, just like all the fresh-water Ducks, but it resembles the Mallard 

 in its partiality for the stubble-fields in autumn, and goes regularly at dusk 

 VOL. iv. 2 p 145 



