98 The Natural History of British Ducks 
Pintail seem to be quite monogamous after the first general scramble for wives, 
each pair settling down in the most exemplary manner after the first tourney 
in the arena of love. No hangers-on are permitted or encouraged, and both 
male and female search together for a suitable nesting-place in heavy under- 
growth, and generally near the water. In Iceland I found one of their nests 
at some distance from the river, and situated in the open on the ' tundra ' 
close to the nests of Scaup, Teal, and Wigeon, but at a greater distance from 
the water. The female Pintail lays from seven to twelve eggs, elongated in 
form, and of two different types, some clutches being buff only, while 
others are buffish-green. In an interesting note on this subject, Mr. Heatley 
Noble (our most thorough specialist on the eggs of the Anatidce) remarks on 
this peculiarity in the eggs of the Pintail, all the other surface-feeding 
ducks, except Mallard, laying eggs of one colour alone. In the eggs of the 
Mallard you may note every intermediate colour between buffish-white and 
buff-green. 
In confinement, provided not too many other species are kept on the 
same sheet of water, and there are quiet retreats, Pintail can be induced to 
nest and rear their young. Both within enclosures and in a wild state they 
have frequently bred with the Mallard, and the hybrids are rather handsome 
birds. The males, which are always in preponderance, are perfect mixtures of 
the two species, even to the top tail-feathers, which are long and half-curled. 
The Pintail has also bred in confinement with the Wigeon, and I possess a 
specimen of a female hybrid which was killed in a wild state on the river 
Earn in Scotland, in August 1898. With reference to the crosses between 
these birds, Sir Edward Grey, who is an admirer of water-fowl, and has long 
kept surface-feeding ducks at Falloden, Northumberland, writes : ' The only 
hybrid between British surface-feeding ducks that has occurred here is between 
a drake Wigeon and a female Pintail, which paired together for some years. 
In 1895 one young one was reared — a drake, which I still possess. The next 
year two more were brought up — a drake and a duck. I kept the drake for 
