PINTAIL 
329 
Pintail is no exception. Pinioned birds not only dive readily when pursued, but 
they have been seen diving of their own accord as many as ten or fifteen times in four 
feet of water (Xaumann, 1896-1905; Christy, 1916; Moore, Baird, Brewer and 
Ridgway, 1884). 
Assumption of male plumage by old females has been noticed in captive Pintails. 
Such females seem to go back to their normal plumage in summer (Rogeron, 1903). 
The ease with which male Pintails can be crossed with female Mallards has been 
taken advantage of by certain English sportsmen. A stock of three-quarters and 
seven-eighths Pintail has been developed at Netherby by Sir Richard Graham, and 
though they have not become regular breeders, they have in the spring and autumn 
returned to the ponds where they were reared (Millais, 1913). 
Pintails nested for me at Wenham, Massachusetts, and I also raised a number of 
first and second generation hybrids with the Mallard in connection with work in 
genetics. I can recommend these hybrids as excellent material from the sportsman’s 
point of view, for they soon became wild enough to make difficult targets, and their 
flesh is excellent. Plenty of fertile eggs can be obtained by turning down a number 
of semi-domestic female Mallards in a pond with the same number of Pintail males. 
Hybrids. Wild hybrids between this species and the Mallard are more common 
in this country than any other duck -hybrids excepting the Alallard-Black Duck 
crosses. In the Old World they are easily the commonest among wild hybrids, and 
they are so numerous that to list them is quite superfluous. Additional wild hybrids 
are listed by Suchetet (1896) between the Pintail and Anas penelope, Anas crecca, 
Anas strepera. Spatula clypeata, Nyrocaferina. In confinement the Pintail has been 
crossed with very many other ducks, including the Chilian Pintail (Anas spini- 
cauda), the Red-crested Pochard (Nyroca rufina), the Rosy-billed Duck (Meto- 
piana peposaca) and the Garganey (Anas querquedula) (Poll, 1911; Earl Grey, 
in litt.; specimens in Tring Museum). 
GEOGRAPHICAL RACES 
ANAS ACUTA ACUTA Linne 
Characters: Size slightly smaller; middle tail-feathers shorter. Wing of adult male up to 280 mm. 
Range: Europe and Asia. 
ANAS ACUTA TZITZIHOA Vieillot 
Anas tzitzihoa Vieillot, Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Hist. Nat., vol. 5, p. 163, 1816. 
Anas acuta americana Reichenow {nec Gmelin), Ornith. Monatsber., vol. 9, p. 17, 1901. 
Dafila acuta tzitzihoa Thayer and Bangs, Auk, vol. 33, p. 46, 1916. 
Characters: Size slightly larger, and middle tail-feathers longer. Wing of adult male up to 285 mm. 
Range: New World. 
