The Goose-like Birds 



and ponds and sloughs wherever they are of sufficient size. Mr. Bent, who has 

 had much experience among the water fowl of this region, states that the nest of 

 the Pintail is "placed almost anywhere on dry ground, or sometimes near the edge 

 of a slough or pond, sometimes on the islands in the lakes, but more often on 

 the prairies, and sometimes a half a mile or more from the nearest water. The 

 nest is poorly concealed, and often in plain sight. A deep hollow is scooped out 

 in the ground, which is sparingly lined with bits of straw and stubble, and a 

 scanty lining of down is deposited around the eggs." The eggs, which are 

 usually from eight to ten in number, are pale olive-green or olive-buff, and 

 measure about two and twenty-five hundredths by one and fifty hundredths 

 inches. The female is described as very solicitous for the safety of her brood, 



flying around over the 

 head of the intruder or 

 splashing down in the 

 water within a few 

 feet and acting as 

 if wounded, quacking 

 excitedly all the time. 

 This species is also 

 very common along 

 the Yukon, where it 

 nests usually in the 

 sedge, lining the nest 

 with dry grass, and 

 when both parents 

 leave the eggs they 

 are carefully covered 

 with dry leaves and feathers. As soon as the young are hatched they repair 

 to the small creeks and tributaries of the great river until they can fly, when 

 they go to the vast marshes and feed upon the roots of the horse-tail, and 

 become so fat that they rise from the water with difficulty. By the end of 

 September they have all left for the South. In the Old World the main breeding 

 ground of the Pintail is north of latitude 60, although it may come some- 

 what, south of this in Siberia, Russia, and northern Germany, and a few still 

 spend the summer in England and Ireland. In the latter places its breeding 

 haunts are the rocky inlets in quiet sloughs and firths, often at a considerable 

 distance from the mainland. 



The other species of Pintail are found in the Southern Hemisphere, one of the 

 best known being the Brown Pintail (D. spinicauda} of South America. This 

 handsome Duck, which is much smaller than the one just described, is, according 

 to Hudson, the commonest Duck in the Argentine Republic and unites in the 

 largest flocks. Its nest is built on the ground under the grass or thistles, at a 

 distance from water, and is plentifully lined with down plucked from the breast 

 of the female. In autumn it often visits the pampas in vast numbers to feed 

 upon the seeds of the giant thistle, where it clusters so closely that as many as 



FIG. 62. Pintail Duck, Dafila acuta. 



