The Pintail 



few who remain are a little more forward in their nesting than are the 

 Redheads and Cinnamon Teals. It is for this reason perhaps that Pin- 

 tail chicks are better known than Pintail eggs in California; and the 

 accounts of juvenile encounters are more numerous than observations 

 on nesting behavior. 



As is usually the case with the River Ducks (except Aix sponsa), 

 the nest of the Pintail is a lowly hollow scraped out in the grass or herb- 

 age, whether near to or remote from water. A sitting female is, naturally, 



















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Taken in Oakland 



Photo by H. C. Bryant 

 Use by courtesy of the California Fish and Game Commission 



WAITING FOR BREAKFAST 



DUCKS, CHIEFLY PINTAILS AND WIGEONS, ON LAWNS BORDERING LAKE MERRITT. 



TO PROTECTION. 



A CONSPICUOUS EXAMPLE OF RESPONSE 



very inconspicuous, and she knows how to remain motionless. So great 

 is the bird's reliance upon protective, or obliterative, coloration, that in 

 one instance, according to Rockwell, 1 a duck whose nest was "a depression 

 in a perfectly bare sandy flat without a particle of concealment of any 

 kind," successfully hatched a clutch of eleven eggs. However, the eggs 

 of a nest which I took from very scanty cover at Los Bafios, although the 



l Condor. Vol. XIII.. Nov., ion, p. 18 



1793 



