PITT TAIL. 



hutch of a dealer throughout the summer, that did not 

 exhibit any change at all.' 



The following is Montagu's description of a male Pintail, 

 after he had thrown off the masculine plumage, taken on 

 the 19th. of August: 'Bill, as usual; top of the head, and 

 from thence down the back of the neck, dusky and pale 

 ferruginous, intermixed in minute streaks, paler on the forehead; 

 sides of the head and throat, brown, with minute dusky 

 specks, tinged with ferruginous; the front and sides of the 

 neck, brown, with dusky black spots which are minute on 

 the upper part, becoming larger by degrees downwards, where 

 they are also more distinct, the breast very pale brown, 

 with more distant dusky spots; the back and scapulars are 

 only black, with pale margins, each feather having a transverse 

 bar of white near the tip; the longer scapulars are only 

 margined with rufous white, and some are powdered with 

 white. As they approach the tail the feathers gradually lose 

 the white barj so that the tail coverts are only margined 

 with white; the feathers on the sides of the body being large, 

 have broad margins, with the middle dusky black, in which 

 is either a ferruginous white bar, or two spots, one on each 

 side of the shaft; the prime quills dusky grey, as usual; the 

 speculum changeable green, or copper, tipped with white; a 

 violet bar dividing the green from the white. The first 

 tertial is brown on the inner web, grey on the outer, near 

 the shaft, and a broad margin of violet; the rest of the 

 tertials are brown, dashed with cinereous black near the shafts; 

 the coverts of the wings plain dark cinereous, the larger 

 series tipped with bay; the tail consists of sixteen dusky 

 feathers, dashed with cinereous, gradually becoming darker 

 towards the middle feathers, which rather exceed the rest in 

 length, making the tail regularly cuneiform; vent, and under 

 tail coverts, rufous white, with distant black spots. 



At the annual autumnal moult, the males again assume, 

 with their new feathers, the colour peculiar to their sex, but 

 the assumption is gradual. White spots first appear among 

 the brown feathers on the front of the neck; by the end 

 of the second week in October the front of the neck and 

 breast are mottled with brown and white; at the end of 

 the third week in October a few brown spots only remain on 

 the white.' 



