490 



PINTAIL DUCK. 



the sprigtail. Some ducks, when aroused, disperse in dif- 

 ferent directions ; but the sprigtails, when alarmed, cluster 

 confusedly together as they mount, and thereby afford the 

 sportsman a fair opportunity of raking them with advantage. 

 They generally leave the Delaware about the middle of March, 

 on the way to their native regions, the north, where they are 

 most numerous. They inhabit the whole northern parts of 

 Europe and Asia, and doubtless the corresponding latitudes 

 of America ; are said likewise to be found in Italy. Great 

 flocks of them are sometimes spread along the isles and shores 

 of Scotland and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both 

 these countries. On the marshy shores of some of the bays 

 of Lake Ontario, they are often plenty in the months of October 

 and November. I have also met with them at Louisville, on 

 the Ohio. 



The pintail duck is twenty-six inches in length, and two 

 feet ten inches in extent ; the bill is a dusky lead colour ; 

 hides, dark hazel ; head and half of the neck, pale brown, each 

 side of the neck marked with a band of purple violet, border- 

 ing the white ; hind part of the upper half of the neck, black, 

 bordered on each side by a stripe of white, which spreads over 

 the lower part of the neck before ; sides of the breast and upper 

 part of the back, white, thickly and elegantly marked with 

 transverse undulating lines of black, here and there tinged with 

 pale buff ; throat and middle of the belly, white, tinged with 

 cream ; flanks, finely pencilled with waving lines ; vent, white ; 

 under tail-coverts, black ; lesser wing-coverts, brown ash ; 

 greater, the same, tipt with orange ; below which is the 

 speculum, or beauty spot, of rich golden green, bordered 

 below with a band of black and another of white ; primaries, 

 dusky brown ; tertials, long, black, edged with white, and 

 tinged with rust ; rump and tail-coverts, pale ash, centred 

 with dark brown ; tail greatly pointed, the two middle taper- 

 ing feathers being full five inches longer than the others, and 

 black, the rest brown ash, edged with white ; legs, a pale lead 

 colour. 



