216 PINTAIL DUCK. 



everywhere, and I shot a few in order to satisfy myself that they were of the 

 same species as those I had been accustomed to see. On one occasion I 

 shot at a large flock swimming on a shallow pond in a large savannah, 

 and wounded several, which I was surprised to see diving very expertly 

 as I waded out for them, this species being by no means addicted to that 

 practice. Those which I have now and then wounded, while in a boat 

 and in deep water, soon gave up diving, and surrendered, without ex- 

 hibiting any of those feats of cunning performed by other species. 



The flight of the Pintails is very rapid, greatly protracted, and almost 

 noiseless. They arrive in the Western Country mostly in the dusk of 

 evening, and alight without much circumspection wherever they find 

 water. They remain at night in the ponds where they feed, and continue 

 there generally unless much disturbed. On such occasions they keep in 

 the middle of the water, to avoid their land enemies ; but the Virginian 

 and Barred Owls not unfrequently surprise them, and force them to rise 

 or make towards the shore, when they fall a prey to the nocturnal ma- 

 rauders. In the Middle States, they are highly esteemed for the table. 

 There they arrive later and retire sooner towards their breeding-places, 

 than in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains. 



Anas acuta, Limi. Syst. Nat. vol. L p. 202 — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 864 



Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 383. 



Pintail Duck, Anas acuta, Wils. Amer. Omith. vol. viii. p. 72. pi. 68. fig. 3. 



Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 386. 



Anas caudacuta, Pintail Duck, Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer, part ii. 

 p. 441. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXXVII. Fig. 1. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, de- 

 pressed towards the end, the frontal angles short and obtuse. Upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line at first sloping, then concave, towards the 

 curved unguis nearly straight, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then 

 broadly convex, the sides convex, the edges soft, with about fifty internal 

 lamella ; unguis small, somewhat triangular, curved abruptly at the broad 

 end. Nostrils subbasal, lateral, rather small, oval, pervious. Lower 

 mandible flattish, its angle very long and narrow, the dorsal line very 

 short, slightly convex, the sides convex, the edges soft, with about sixty 

 lamella\ 



