PINTAILS AND WIDGEONS. 181 



they come from the north from September onward, and 

 again when they return to their breeding grounds in spring, 

 which is generally during April, but is sometimes as late as 

 the first week in May. Not only do they journey together, 

 but they continue together, and also in company with the 

 Teals and Mallards, being often in large flocks in the South- 

 ern States in winter, and breeding abundantly together in 

 the north, especially about the cedar swamps of Hud- 

 son's Bay, and the lowlands of Milk River and its tribu- 

 taries, as also through Northern Dakota and Montana 

 generally. In the first-named locality the Pintail is said to 

 breed the most abundantly of all the Ducks. 



This species, inclusive of the long, ornamental feathers in 

 the center of his tail, is 29.00 long, and his extent of wings 

 is 36.00; bill long and narrow; neck very long and slender; 

 head a glossy dusky-brown to half-way down the neck in 

 front, the centers of the feathers being darker, and the 

 whole somewhat tinged with violet or green toward the 

 back of the head; front of the lower neck, and strips up the 

 side of it to the back of the head, white; strip down the 

 back of the head black, becoming gray on the neck; upper 

 parts of a general grayish or dusky effect, the dusky feathers 

 being for the most part delicately penciled with white; the 

 long-pointed scapulars, tertiaries and tail feathers, except the 

 two long black ones in the center, black or dusky, edged or 

 streaked with white or gray; beauty spot green, the bar in 

 front rich olive, that behind white; under parts white, 

 often tinged with olive. 



The female, having the feathers in the center of the tail 

 only about a half-inch longer than the rest, and being 

 otherwise slightly smaller than the male, is but 22.00 long, 

 with some 34.00 extent of wing; her head is dark brown, her 

 neck dingy white, thickly specked with brown; the dusky, or 



