208 ANATID^. 



In the female the centre tail feathers are shorter, 

 and the outer ones darker, than in the male. The neck, 

 breast, and belly are pale brown, speckled with a darker 

 shade; the purple tinge on the back of the neck is 

 wanting, and the upper surface of the body is dark 

 brown, marked with black and lighter brown. 



The Pintail Duck exhibits more remarkably than any 

 other the singula'r transformation of plumage already 

 noticed in the shoveller and mallard, and common to 

 others, of this family, the male during a part of the 

 summer exactly resembling the female. Yarrell's* minute 

 description of the change will better explain it. He says, 

 " This alteration commences in July, partly effected by 

 some new feathers, and partly by a change in the colour 

 of many of the old ones. At first one or more brown 

 spots appear in the white surface on front of the neck ; 

 these spots increase in number rapidly, till the whole 

 head, neck, breast, and under surface have become 

 brown; the scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials undergo 

 by degrees the same change from grey to brown. I 

 have seen a single white spot remaining on the breast 

 as late as the 4th of August, but generally by that 

 time the males can only be distinguished from females 

 of the same species by their larger size, and their belly 



* British Birds, iii. 259. 



