13i GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



size is one of the things that rates it as a second-class duck on the 

 markets. 



The Shoveller falls an easy prey to the market hunter, for it comes 

 readily to decoys and is not so wary as most other species. In most 

 parts of the state, it is always to be seen in any good bag and very 

 often is the principal species represented. Two transfer companies in 

 San Francisco which recorded the number of Shovellers sold during 

 the season 1910-1911, disposed of 5,855 of these ducks. Although 

 considerably reduced during the past few years. Shovellers continue 

 to appear in large numbers during the winter season. The toll upon 

 this species taken by the hunter is determined by the supply of more 

 desirable ducks. As the more valuable table ducks become reduced 

 in numbers, the Shoveller tends to rise in popularity. 



Pintail 



Dafila acuta (Linnaeus) 



Other names — Sprig; Sprigtail; Dafila caudacuta. 



Description — Adult male: Head bister brown, darkest on top, each feather 

 blaelt centrally with pale tip, the whole giving a faintly scaled appearance; 

 a similar but more finely scaled effect on cheeks and throat; feathers of hind 

 neck black, washed with metallic green and separated from brown of head 

 on either side by a conspicuous white stripe which extends upward and. 

 forward from white of breast; feathers on sides of hind neck washed with 

 metallic pink; iris dark brown; bill blackish gray on culmen, nail and lower 

 mandible, lead color at sides; upper surface and side of body with fine irregular, 

 wavy bars of black and white; longer scapulars velvety black edged with 

 ashy white; rump nearly uniform ashy brown; upper tail coverts blackish 

 brown, edged with white, lateral ones having outer webs deep black; tail 

 feathers blackish brown edged with white, the central elongated ones black; 

 outer surface of closed wing clear brownish gray; primary flight feathers 

 darker brownish gray; tertials long and black, broadly edged with ashy gray; 

 speculum iridescent, varying from green to bronzy purple at different angles; 

 speculum edged in front by a bar of pale rusty brown, behind by a bar of black 

 followed by a bar of white, and above by a broad band of black; under sur- 

 face of wing grayish brown; axillars dull white, finely mottled with dusky; 

 under surface of body pure white save for belly which is faintly and dully 

 barred with dusky; lower surface often discolored with rusty; a conspicuous 

 white patch at base of tail on each side; under tail coverts black, the outer- 

 most ones outwardly edged with white; feet olive gray, dusky at joints. Total 

 length "26.00-30.00" inches (660-762 mm.) (Ridgway, 1900, p. 97); folded 

 wing 10.30-10.80 (262-274); bill along culmen 1.93-2.16 (49.0-54.8); tarsus 

 1.59-1.74 (40.3-44.2) (ten specimens). Adult female: Top of head reddish 

 brown, narrowly streaked with black; sides of head and whole neck lighter 

 buffy brown and more finely streaked with black; chin and throat white; 

 rest of upper surface and sides, dark brown, each feather marked with 

 U-shaped bars of light reddish brown and with whitish marks on outer margin; 

 upper tail coverts more broadly edged with white; tail feathers dark brown 

 irregularly barred with light rusty brown; wing as in male except that 



