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ANAS ACUTA 
An idea of its extreme scarcity in central New England may be obtained from my 
twenty years’ observations at Wenham Lake, where only 29 were taken between the 
years 1899 and 1920, and only 84 seen and not taken, a proportion of 0.01 % of all 
ducks shot. Of course a few Pintail reach New England with the Blue-wings in early 
September, and so escape my records, which usually begin about September 25 each 
year. In southern New England it is a little commoner. 
Going southwest, the Pintail first appears regularly in some numbers in Delaware 
Bay and southward along the entire coast. At Currituck Sound, North Carolina, it 
is exceedingly numerous, but owing to its cleverness it appears on the shooting rec- 
ords of the Currituck Club (1888-1910) as only 6544 out of a total of 65,482, being 
greatly exceeded by the Mallard, Black Duck and American Widgeon. In the 
following years, 1911-18, Pintails were exceeded by the Mallard and Black Duck. 
They numbered 1973 in a total of 19,515. There is no certain indication of any fall- 
ing off in this period, the lowest shooting seasons being 1897-98 and 1898-99. At the 
Swan Island Club, a few miles off. Pintails were second in number only to the Black 
Duck during the seasons 1909-10 to 1918-19. In some seasons they actually exceeded 
every other species. At the Santee Club, South Carolina, between the years 1901 
and 1909, only 847 Pintail were taken in a total of 22,084 ducks. This seems to show 
that the birds are not so fond of the abandoned rice-field districts as of the broader 
sounds farther north. But on the east coast of Florida (Canaveral Club) they make 
up 14% of the ducks shot there. 
The figures for the markets of New Orleans in the season 1913-14 show 27,955 
Pintails out of a total of 283,483 ducks, or 13%. They were exceeded there by 
the Mallard, Shoveller, Teal (of two species) and Blue-bills (mostly Lesser Scaup). 
In the Rio Grande Valley in the autumn the Pintail is the third in order of abundance 
among the ducks, averaging about 12% of the total (Leopold, 1919). In California 
it is also one of the most abundant ducks. At the Empire Gun Club (Monterey 
County) between 1905 and 1913 the species was for three years first in order of 
abundance. Of the 71,793 ducks received by the American Game Transfer Company 
at San Francisco in the year 1910-11, the Pintail numbered 17,432, being exceeded 
only by Teal of two species. The Hunters Game Transfer Company in the seasons 
1907 to 1910-11 inclusive, handled 81,656 Pintails out of a total of 357,114 ducks. 
The Pintail was by far the most numerous, and was exceeded only by the Green- 
winged and Cinnamon Teal, which were unfortunately lumped together in the 
records. In the season 1910-11, the combined figures of five other companies show 
that the Pintail represented 22% of all the ducks (Grinnell, Bryantand Storer, 1918). 
Dr. Grinnell suggests that the species cannot continue to exist in numbers, but it 
seems to me more likely to maintain at least its relative status than any other species. 
The report of the IMinnesota Game Commission shows the Pintail fourth in 
abundance in 1919 and sixth in abundance among the ducks in 1920. It is greatly 
