no The Water-fowl Family 



upper tail-coverts, spotted with black and white ; bill, bluish 

 gray, blackish on top ; legs and feet, slate ; webs, dusky. 



Measurements — Length, 21 inches ; wing, 9.30 inches ; culmen, 1.80 

 inches ; tarsus, 1 .60 inches. This bird is easily distinguished 

 from female ducks of other species by its long, slender neck. 



Young male — Similar to female, but with speculum on wing. 



Downy young — Top of head, back of neck and upper parts, olive- 

 brown ; a dull white stripe on each side of back, and over eye ; 

 a brown stripe through the eye from bill ; under parts, grayish 

 white. 



Eggs — Five to nine in number, pale grayish green and measure 2.30 

 by 1.55 inches. 



Habitat — In the Old World, Europe, breeding south to the Rhone 

 Delta, Asia, northern Africa, China, and Japan. In North 

 America, breeds in New Brunswick and from Minnesota, Illi- 

 nois, Missouri, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington, 

 possibly Arizona and California, north to the Bering Sea coast 

 of Alaska, Kotzebue Sound, Point Barrow, and Fort Anderson, 

 and probably east to Davis Strait and Hudson Bay. Winters 

 from Virginia, rarely Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, possibly Wis- 

 consin, Kansas, Arizona, Nevada, and British Columbia, south 

 to the West Indies and Central America; also in Hawaii. 

 Occasional on the Atlantic Coast in migration, north to New- 

 foundland and Labrador, in Greenland and in Bermuda. 



With a range as extensive as the mallard's, 

 this species is nowhere as common. We find the 

 pintail widely dispersed in the Old World, and 

 occurring throughout North America, inland and 

 on the coasts. The northern regions of both 

 continents are their breeding-grounds. In North 

 America through the Barren Grounds to the 

 Arctic Sea and from Great Slave Lake to Alaska, 

 this bird nests as far south as the northern border 

 of the United States. Nelson, observing the birds 



