1920.] Cape San Antonio, Buenos Ayres. 25 



Rincones." These were entirely Pintails, Avitliont the 

 admixture of any oilier species; and the curious tiling is 

 that only a fortnight previously I had been remarking on 

 their scarcity. As Hudson says : " In favourable seasons the 

 Pintail is a resident; but like the marsh-gulls, pigeons, the 

 American golden plover, and all birds that live and move 

 in immense bodies, it travels often and far in search of food 

 or water. A season of scarcity will quickly cause the flocks 

 to disappear from the pampas ; and sometimes, after an 

 absence of several months, a day's rain will end with the 

 familiar sound of their cry and the sight of their long trains 

 winging their way across the darkening heavens." Never- 

 theless, in the spring of the two tiood-years 1913-14, the 

 bird was only fairly abundant, in small or moderate numbers. 

 Later on, in January and February, when it made its 

 a])pearance in great force (many flocks running into ])erhaps 

 a thousand each), it was associated with the Fulvous Tree- 

 Duck in equal numbers, and to a considerable extent with 

 the Rosy-billed Duck; but again, by the beginning of 

 Marcli, the last two had left it in almost sole possession 

 of the scene. 



Don Clemente Onelli, Director of the Buenos Ayres 

 Zoological Gardens, informed me that during the year 1916 

 (which was one of extreme drought all over the Province), 

 he had trap})ed in the grounds and pinioned — with the loss 

 by deaths of only five — no less than 518 wild-duck. These, 

 nearly all Rrown Pintail, had been attracted by the ponds 

 in the Gardens, and the domesticated wildfowl thereon. 

 Yet certainly no one would pronounce the said Gardens to 

 be situated in a suburban, much less rural, locality. 



However plain in appearance, the Brown Pintail ranks 

 high in the sportsman's appreciation. Most palatable on the 

 table, always to be found for a spare hour's shooting or a 

 big day's battue, and neither stupidly confiding nor wildly 

 shy, the gunner's motto may well be " shoot and spare not." 

 ]\Iany years ago one of the members of our Yngleses staff 

 was leaving for England, and in anticipation had sent oflf 

 his heavy luggage and gun by sea to Buenos Ayres. Like 



