68 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Genus Dafila (Steph.) 

 50. Dafila acuta (Linn.}. PINTAIL. 



Ad. cf. Head and throat olive-brown; back of neck blackish, bordered by white stripes, 

 which pass to breast; breast and belly white; the abdomen faintly and sides strongly marked 

 with wavy lines of black and white; back somewhat darker than sides; scapulars black, bor- 

 dered or streaked with buffy white; wing-coverts biownish gray, greater ones tipped with 

 rufous; speculum green; central tail-feathers glossed with green and much elongated. Ad. 9 

 Throat white or whitish, crown and sides of head streaked with blackish and buffy ochracequs, 

 darker above; breast washed with buffy ochraceous and spotted with blackish; belly white; 

 abdomen more or less indistinctly mottled with blackish; sides with bars and lengthened 

 black and white crescents; under wing-coverts fuscous, bordered with whitish; axillars barred 

 or mottled with black; back fuscous, the feathers with borders, bars, or crescents of white or 

 buffy; speculum grayish brown bordered with white. Im. The im. cf is variously intermedi- 

 ate between the ad. cf and 9 ; the im. 9 resembles the ad. 9 , but the underparts are more 

 heavily streaked or spotted. L., d 1 , 28.00, 9, 22.00; W., 10.00; T., d", 7.50, 9, 3.60; B., 2.00. 



FIG. 42. PINTAIL (adult male). 



Remarks. The female of this species is a rather obscure-looking bird, but may always be 

 known by its broad, sharply pointed central tail-feathers and dusky under wing-coverts. (Chap., 

 Birds of E.N. A.) 



Range. Northern Hemisphere; in North America breeding from northern United States 

 northward, wintering from Delaware to Panama. 



Range in North Carolina. Coastal region in winter. 



The Pintail is quite as cosmopolitan in its distribution as the Mallard, but appar- 

 ently nowhere so abundant. Often the two are found feeding together, but the 

 Pintail is more suspicious and does not decoy so readily. Its summer home is in 

 the northern regions of both continents. Many Pintails winter in suitable places 

 along our seaboard; in fact, in brackish and fresh water they are surpassed in 

 numbers only by the Mallard and Black Duck. 



