242 BIRDS 



The Pintail 



Length — Male 25 to 80 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 in the white of the breast and under 

 parts. Underneath faintly, the sides more strongly, and 

 the back heavily marked with waving black lines; back 

 darkest; shoulders 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 obUque 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 winter 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 

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



