BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 49 
tudes in which the species breed, and further intimating that 
the smaller flocks which follow are subdivisions of larger ones 
which have begun to disintergrate before reaching us here. 
Their movements at these times do not materially differ from 
those of the Black Ducks on the wing, but the preponderance 
of white in the color easily distinguishes them at all ordinary 
distances and there can be no reason for mistaking them. They 
soon pair, and soon seek their grounds for breeding their 
young. Their food is, as their long, pectinated bills fore- 
shadow, aquatic insects, larvee, tadpoles, worms, &c., which 
are obtained mostly in shallow waters. I have often flushed 
them from muddy pools and frogponds by the roadside before 
the nesting had begun, but never afterwards I think. 
The distribution of the Shovellers is entirely determined by 
the character of the ponds and pools which afford their pecu- 
liar food. In the early autumn, if the frosts are delayed, as 
once until the middle of Octooer, they live almost exclusively 
upon crustaceans and small molluscs, especially snails, which 
abound at that season about the shallow lakes and ponds. 
They disappear very soon upon the advent of the first crisp 
frosts, be that,as in one year, August 30th, or September 30th. 
Their flesh is white and excellent, yet for some unexplainable 
reason is not popular in the average local markets, notwith- 
standing the high esteem in which it is held at the seaboards. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Head and neck green; forepart and sides of breast, greater 
portion of scapulars, and of the base of the tail, white; rest of 
under parts dull purplish chestnut; crissum, rump, and upper 
tail coverts black, the latter glossed with green; wing coverts 
blue, the posterior row, brown in the concealed portion, and 
tipped with white; longest tertials blue, streaked internally 
with white; others velvet green, streaked centrally with white; 
speculum grass-green, edged very narrowly behind with black, 
and then with white. 
Length, 20; wing, 9.50; tarsus, 1.40; commissure, 3. 
Habitat, Northern Hemisphere. 
DAFILA ACUTA (L.). (143.) 
PINTAIL. 
When the steady advance of the sun has banished the ice 
from the lakes and every pool is ringing with the monotonous 
peepings of the frogs, the Pintails will be found in considera- 
ble numbers on the mud flats of the open level prairies, and ex- 
