DUCKS 81 
The rest of the under-parts chestnut followed by white, with 
glossy blackish-green tail-coverts. Back dusky brown. In 
“eclipse” (about July-October) the drake 
has the head and neck much like thefemale, 
and is duller on the under-parts; but 
wings as in breeding plumage. The 
female has the speculum as the male, the 
wing-coverts grey-blue. Mantle dark 
brown with paler margins. Under-parts 
and head mostly pale brown with dusky 
brown streaks on breast and flanks, and 
finer streaks on the head. The young much like the drake 
in “ eclipse.” 
Nest. Place: various—meadow, moorland, or marsh, usually 
but not always near water; a depression in grass, heather, 
rushes, &c. Material: grasses, sedges, &c., lined later with the 
duck’s down. 
Eggs. Usually 8-12. Greenish or buffish-grey. Av. size, 
2°05 x 1°45 in. Laying begins usually April-May. One brood. 
164. Pintail [Dojfila acuta (Linneus)|. Breeds in Scotland, 
but local. More numerous as a winter visitor and bird of 
passage to our coasts, and, less frequently, inland waters. 
Bird. Length 26-29 in., the latter figure being mostly 
accounted for by the length (some- . 
times 8} in.) of the central tapering 
feathers in the drake. Speculum of 
wing patch in both sexes is bronze 
olive-green, margined in front with 
bright chestnut, behind with: black 
edged white, and duller in the duck. 
The drake is recognised by the long 
central brownish-black pin tail-feathers; the brown head, 
throat, and upper neck, the latter cut on each side by a 
white stripe which broadens as it descends to join the 
white of the lower neck, breast, and abdomen. Flanks and 
back delicately patterned with fine close-set wavy parallel 
lines or vermiculations of grey on whitish. Inner secondaries 
much prolonged and coloured black with brownish-tinted 
margins. Upper and under tail-coverts black with an adjoining 
buff patch. In “eclipse,” about July-October, the drake 
becomes much like the duck, but may be distinguished by 
the grey vermiculations, and the wavy bars of white on the 
scapulars and back, the latter in the duck being greyish 
covered with more strongly marked irregular crescents of buff 
and dark brown. Her scapulars are dusky brown barred 
rufous. Flanks as back, but paler. Under-parts whitish 
F 
Fig. 95. 
