THE PlNeTAIL. 
Dafila acuta, Linné. 
0 
Vernacular Names.—[Sanh, Sink-par, V. W. Provinces ; Dighons. Sho-lon-cho, 
Bengal; Laitunga, Manipur; Taw-bay, Thaw-wom-bay. #ritish Burmah ; 
Digoonch, Vefal; Kokarali, Drighush, Szz7¢h ; Ade, Adla. (in common with 
other species), Aatvagive ; Sink-dum, Cadu/; Chasughsu aurdak, (Turki), 
Varkand ; 
0 
Ducks, there is no district in the Empire, from fee 
to Kashmir, from Kashmir to Sadiya and Mani- 
pur, and so on to Moulmein,* where the Pin-tail 
does not occur in greater or less abundance, only in 
the southernmost portions of Tenasserim, it has 
not yet been observed. It is very common, too, 
almost throughout the Himalayas. But alike to these and to 
the plains, it is only a winter visitant. 
Outside our limits, it occurs in Northern Siam and Upper 
Burmah, is excessively common in China, Mongolia, Central Asia, 
Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Persia, and generally it may be 
said to occur almost throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere 
between the roth and 7oth degrees of North Latitude. It gets 
a little further south than thisin Southern India and Ceylon, and 
Borneo (where a straggler has recently been observed)+ and 
possibly in South America, where, at any rate, it extends to 
Panama; and it does not get quite so far south as this in Siam 
or Tenasserim, or in Eastern or Western Africa. Again, in 
Asia, at any rate, it probably travels somewhat north of the 7oth 
degree. 
It occurs in Japan, Hainan, Formosa, Ireland, Iceland, and 
several of the West India Islands, but has not been recorded 
from the Azores, Canaries, Philippines or Sandwich Islands, 
though these are all apparently within its range. 
* Davison has now seen several near Moulmein, and Oates writes that this species 
is *‘common in the Pegu Province during the cold weather on all large sheets of 
water. The swamp at Engmah, ten miles north of Poungday, always affords good 
shooting, this species being particularly abundant there.” 
+ This was at Bintulu, on the north-west coast in about 4° North Latitude, 
