MIGRATION RECORDS FROM WILD DUCKS AND OTHER BIRDS. V 



PINTAIL. 

 Pl. II, Fig. 2. 



While only 34 bands have been returned from a total of 221 pin- 

 tails released, the distribution shown is the most remarkable of any 

 of the birds included in the present account (see Table 6). Only 

 7 banded pintails were killed near the mouth of Bear River, 5 during 

 October of the fall in which released, 1 probably secured in Novem- 

 ber, and 1 in April of the following spring. Other records for 

 Utah come from Bear River, a few miles above its mouth, the mouth 

 of the Weber River, the Jordan River, and the marshes west of 

 Salt Lake City, 4 during October and 3 during November of the fall 

 of their release. Another killed near the mouth of the Jordan River 

 was at liberty from September 29, 1916, until late in November, 1920. 



Many pintails apparently migrate in winter to the interior val- 

 leys of California, as shown by 8 returns from the area between the 

 marshes above Suisun Bay and the Imperial Valley south of Cali- 

 patria. As might be expected, several of these birds were shot in 

 the extensive marshes of the San Joaquin River, in Merced and 

 Fresno Counties. One bird released August 20 was killed October 

 16 near Dos Palos, Merced County, indicating an early migration, 

 while 2 others were secured in November. Two were noted in De- 

 cember and 3 in January, months when in normal years pintails 

 should all be absent from Utah. 



Proper interpretation and presentation of data from States farther 

 east is more difficult. The evidence indicates a line of flight to the 

 northward to the drainage of the Missouri River, as one of the 

 marked birds was secured near Glasgow, Mont,, on September 15, 

 11 days after its release. Another fall record from farther south is 

 that of a bird from near Hyannis, in the sandhill region of Ne- 

 braska. A report from near Markham, on the Gulf coast of Texas, 

 would seem to indicate a bird in its winter home. In the region 

 from the Mississippi River westward to the Great Plains, numbers of 

 pintails linger through the winter south of the line of ice and, with 

 the coming of open water in the earliest of spring thaws, crowd 

 eagerly northward during favorable weather, perhaps to be driven 

 southward again in a few days by a sudden freeze that closes the 

 streams and ponds. Their numbers are increased late in January 

 by birds coming from winter homes farther south. Reports from 

 Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico at the end of January, and from 

 the panhandle of Texas near the end of February, are supposed to 

 represent such restless early migrants. 



One of these migrants, a bird captured on the salt plains of the 

 Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, in Oklahoma, had a history of 

 unusual interest. In September, 1914, a pintail helpless with the 

 duck sickness was noted on the flats of South Bay, as the writer 

 was crossing in a mud boat — a flat-bottomed launch fitted with 

 steel-bladed paddle wheels on either side and driven by an automo- 

 bile engine, designed to run over smooth clay mud barely covered 

 with water. A motion to the steersman was sufficient to change 

 the course slightly, so that, dashing -past in a spray of mud and 

 water, a veritable charging juggernaut, it was possible to lean 

 out, seize the duck, and draw it in. A peculiar crescent of white 



