Pintail 47 
times on a hummock in a marsh; it is made of grass 
and down. The eggs, eight to ten or more, are greenish 
or buffy and measure 2°14 x 1:50. 
Genus DAFILA, 
Bill shorter than the head, exceeding the tarsus and also the middle 
toe and claw, nearly parallel-sided and with a small nail; neck rather 
long; tail of sixteen feathers, graduated for at least one-third of its 
total length; in the adult male when fully developed, nearly as long 
as the wing, the two central feathers produced and pointed. 
One species only in North America. 
Pintail. Dafila acuta. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 143—Colorado Records—Aiken 72, p. 210; 
Morrison 89, p. 164; Cooke 97, pp. 18, 55, 194; 06, p. 37; Henderson 
02, p. 234; 09, p. 25; Rockwell 08, p. 155; Warren 09, p. 13; 10, p. 29. 
Description Male—Head and upper part of the neck and a line 
along the nape forming a crest, brown ; back and a patch on the flanks 
brown, finely undulated with white; central tail-feathers elongated, 
pointed and black ; below, including the fore-neck and u narrow line 
on, either side of the nape crest, white; belly a little speckled with 
dusky ; under tail-coverts black ; wing chiefly grey brown with a green 
speculum narrowly bordered above by chestnut and below by white, 
and on the sides by black ; iris brown, bill black, a little greyish on the 
edge, legs greyish-blue. Length about 26; wing 11-0; tail 8-0 ; culmen 
2-2; tarsus 1-60. 
The female is brown above, speckled on the head, mottled on the 
back with buffy and white; below paler, almost white on the breast ; 
sides like the back ; wing with a faint speculum of greenish between 
two narrow bars of white ; tail about 4:5, shorter than that of the male ; 
wing 9°75. Young birds resemble the females. 
Distribution.—The Pintail is another widely-spread Duck with a 
circumpolar range; it breeds in the northern parts of the Old and 
New Worlds. In America the breeding range is north of a line running 
roughly from Lake Michigan to the Pacific, and west from Lake 
Michigan to Hudson Bay. They winter to the south as far as 
Panama and the West Indies. 
In Colorado the Pintail is a common migrant. It is one of the earliest 
birds in spring, and has been, noticed at Loveland the first week in 
February and at Grand Junction on February 27th (Rockwell). Except 
for the Blue-winged Teal, Hersey and Rockwell found it the most 
abundant nesting Duck at Barr, while a few birds stay there all the 
winter. Warren saw a female with four one-third grown young near 
