190 THE PIN-TAIL. 
Its general distribution is not unlike that of the Gadwall, but 
it covers a wider range,and has a much more northern average 
breeding zone. 
RATHER LATE to arrive the Pin-tail is one of the earliest of our 
migratory Ducks to leave us. In the Himalayas, asin Kashmir, 
Kullu and Nepal,* it arrives, no doubt, during September ; but 
it is rarely seen really down in the plains before November, and 
it very rarely remains there, even in the North-West Provinces, 
after the Ist of April, while further south it is said to leave, as 
a rule, early in March. Even in Kashmir and Nepal few, if any, 
remain at the close of April. 
The Pin-tail, though found everywhere in India, is much more 
restricted in the localities it affects than the Gadwall. It is rare 
to meet with it on large rivers, and on small streams or ponds, 
or in mere swamps without any clear water, I do not think I 
ever saw one in broad daylight. At night they visit all kinds of 
jhils, and even rice-fields, but in the day time they are generally 
only found in considerable pieces of water, sprinkled over with 
islets of floating weed, amongst the leaves of which they can 
snooze unnoticed. 
Long ago I said, writing from Sindh :—“It is curious how par- 
ticular ducks affect particular broads, or dhunds as they are called 
in Sindh. In one dhund, the great mass of the fowl are Fuligula 
nyroca, this will be one much covered with the more or less dry 
leaves of the lotus. In another, Q. augustzrostris predominates ; 
here there will be a vast quantity of green rush, making the whole 
lake look like a meadow ; in open, clear-water dhunds of moder- 
ate size, Fuligula ferina will be ina majority, while, where there 
is a vast expanse of open water, fulzgula rufina and cristata 
will outnumber all the other kinds many fold. Shovellers and 
Shelldrakes (and precious wary these latter always are) sneak 
along the edges, while Mallard like to sit round the roots of 
the tamarisk bushes, thousands of which stand far out into 
some pieces of water. .What the Pin-tail seem to prefer are 
pieces of comparatively open water, dotted about with small 
patches of a long-leaved water-plant, a Sagzttarza I think, which 
rises about four inches above the surface, in amongst which they 
sit, completely hidden when asleep, even at a few yards distance, 
and with their brown and inconspicuous heads, and a little only 
of their white necks showing when they are looking about them. 
The Manchar is an epitome of every description of broad, and 
accordingly in different parts of its huge expanse different 
species predominate; only the Coots everywhere swarm in 
* So Dr. Scully reports :—“ The Pin-tail is the commonest of the Duck tribe in 
the Nepal Valleyin winter. It is most abundant from September to November and 
in March and April, but it is to be found in the valley throughout the cold season. 
