CHILIAN PINTAIL 
SPINICAUDA Vieillot 
(Plate 40) 
Synonymy 
Anas spinicaiida Vieillot, Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Hist. Nat., vol. 5, p. 135, 1816. 
Anas oxyura Meyen {ex Lichtenstein, AIS.), Nova Acta Acad. Leop. -Carol., Halle, 
vol. 16, suppl., vol. 1, p. 122, 1834. 
Erismatura spinicauda G. 11. Gray, Genera of Birds, vol. 3, p. 627, 1844. 
Dafila oxyura Reichenbacli, Synopsis Avium, Natatores, pi. 88, fig. 920-921, 1845. 
Dafila spinicauda Bonaparte, Coinpt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 43, p. 650, 1856. 
Dafila urophasianus P. L. Sclater {nee Vigors), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1860, p. 389. 
Anas {Dafila) caudacuta Burmeister {nec Pallas), Journ. f. Ornith., vol. 8, p. 266, 
1860. 
Dafila caudacuta G. R. Gray, Hand-list Birds, vol. 3, p. 81, 1871. 
Vernacular Names 
English: Chilian Pintail, Brown Pintail, South American Pintail. 
German: Chilenische Spiessente, Sudamerikanische Spiessente. 
French: Canard spinicaude. 
Dutch: Bruine Putstaart Eende. 
Spanish: Pato jergon, Pato jergon grande, Pato comun, Pato del campo, Pato 
maicero, Barcino, Papsa — (Bolivians of Tarapaca), Pato barcino. 
DESCRIPTION 
Adult Male; Superficially resembles the female of the Common Pintail, Anas acuta, but the edges 
of the feathers of the mantle and scapulars are margined with brown rather than gray. The tertials 
are longer and blacker and ornamented down the center with a black stripe. The top of the head is 
browner, and the chin, throat and neck are much whiter. The speculum is black with a greenish 
gloss, and is framed both in front and behind with a buffy wing-bar. The central tail-feathers are 
long and pointed. 
Iris brown. Bill yellow with a black stripe down the center of the culmen. Legs and feet grayish to 
olive gray. 
Wing 230-260 mm.; bill 42; tarsus 42. 
.\dult Female: Similar to male, but the speculum is always dull browni.sh to blacki.sh, with a 
darker band just inside the posterior w^hite bar. The color of the speculum varies a good deal. A 
large series of this duck in the Brewster-Sanford collection in New York show’s that there is another 
difference in the sexes: the females are much whiter and more unspotted on the lower breast and 
abdomen than are the males and the central tail-feathers are not so long. 
