'342 BIRDS 



The Pintail 



Length — Male 25 to 30 inches, according to development 

 of tail, female 22 inches. 



Male — Head and throat rich olive brown, glossed with 

 green and purple; blackish on back of neck; two white 

 lines, beginning at the crown, border the blackish space, 

 and become lost ia the white of the breast and mider 

 parts. Underneath faintly, l^he sides more strongly, and 

 the back heavily marked with waving black lines; back 

 darkest; shotdders black; wing coverts brownish gray, 

 the greater ones tipped with reddish brown; speculum 

 or wing patch purplish green; central tail feathers very 

 long and greenish black. Bill and feet slate colored. 



Female — Tail shorter, but with central feathers sharply 

 pointed. Upper parts mottled gray and yellowish and 

 dark brown; breast pale yellow brown freckled with 

 dusky; whitish beneath, the sides marked with black and 

 white ; only traces of the speculum in green spots on brown 

 area of wing; tail with oblique bars. In nesting plum- 

 age the drake resembles the female except that his wing 

 markings remain unchanged. 



Range — ^North America at large, nesting north of Illinois 

 to the Arctic Ocean; winters from central part of the 

 United States southward to Panama and West Indies. 



Season — Chiefly a spring and autumn migrant, or more 

 rarely a wiater visitor, in the northern part of the United 

 States; a winter resident in the South. 



No one could possibly mistake the long-tailed drake in 

 faU plumage for any other species; but the tyro who would 



