DUCKS 53 



Mobile on November 20, and one in Duckers Bay, December 

 3, 1915. 



General habits. — The spoonbill frequents fresh water 

 marshes, where it dabbles in the mud in shallow water after 

 the manner of the mallard. When rising from the water it 

 makes a rather loud noise with its wings — a habit which 

 usually serves to identify it at a distance. Its flight is rather 

 slow and somewhat irregular and hesitating, "as if the bird 

 was uncertain just where to go" (Elliot). 



Food habits. — This duck feeds in the South largely on the 

 seeds and stems of various grasses, sedges and other water 

 plants, including ditchgrass (Ruppia); pondweed (Potamoge- 

 ton), sawgrass (Cladium), and water lily (Castalia); and on 

 snails and other moUusks, crawfish, small fishes, dragonfly 

 nymphs, and other aquatic insect forms. 



PINTAIL ; SPRIGTAIL ; PICKET-TAIL : Dafila acuta 

 tzitzihoa (Vieillot) .* 



State records. — The pintail occurs as an abundant migrant, 

 most numerous in spring, and a few remain all winter in the 

 State. Avery speaks of it (1890) as once abundant but grow- 

 ing scarcer at Greensboro, where it arrives in spring about 

 the first of March ; and McCormack records it from Leighton 

 only once, March 13, 1891, when about 25 were seen. At 

 Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, F. W. Scruggs saw a 

 flock of about 12 on November 3, 1915. At Montgomery it 

 is reported to be a regular visitor in spring and fall; and on 

 March 7, 1912, C. N. Hinderer saw a flock of 150 or more in 

 an overflowed field opposite the city. Golsan and Holt state 

 that a few remain throughout the winter on the Alabama 

 River near Montgomery.^ 



Dr. S. C. Frederic reported pintails abundant in Mobile 

 Bay, November 7, 1915 ; and I found several flocks of 12 to 20 

 in Duckers Bay on December 2 and 3, 1915. In Mississippi 

 Sound, November 12 to 26, 1915, I found them in moderate 

 numbers nearly every day. A few were seen on Petit Bois 



•Dafila acuta of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see The Auk, vol. 34, 

 p. 200, 1917. 



+Golsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 216, 1914. 



