lOO 
The Natural History of British Ducks 
the long scapulars black, with grey edges ; greater wing-coverts buff ; upper 
wing-coverts grey (but much bluer than the female) ; the secondaries have a 
bronze-green wing-patch margined with black and tipped with white ; under 
tail-coverts black, tail grey, with central feathers black. 
I found old Pintail drakes in Iceland in full change to the eclipse on 
June 29. In a flock of twelve males some had just begun to show the first 
brown feathers, and others were nearly in complete dress, and those that I 
have kept in confinement commenced to alter about July i. The plumage 
change was rapid and complete in about eight or ten days. The eclipse 
plumage then remains dormant, as described in the previous remarks on the 
Mallard and its colour-changes, and the beginning of the autumnal moult 
commences about September 6. After this date the usual colour-changes and 
sympathy with both plumages progress till the adult drake is again in 
full plumage, about the middle of October or first week in November. 
When in first plumage the young male and female are exceedingly like 
one another, especially at the commencement of this period ; they also resemble 
the mother to a certain extent, but from her they can be easily distinguished 
by the S7nall spots which cover the breast and belly, and the narrow brown 
edge of the feathers on the back and scapulars. The young male Pintail, 
however, like the young Mallard drake, almost as soon as he has assumed 
his first dress commences to colour-change in the back and scapulars. A grey 
tinge suffuses the brown plumage, and slight reticulations appear on the 
feathers themselves, rendering it easy to notice the difference between him and 
the young female. He is also somewhat larger. By the middle of September 
the usual moult and the more advanced feather-changes commence, and some- 
times, in birds in a high state of condition, advance so rapidly, that young 
drakes of the year may attain the full plumage of the adult drake by the begin- 
ning of December. Most of them, however, retain a considerable proportion 
of the brown plumage until February, when the spring flush finishes off the 
dress. Even then young Pintail drakes are not nearly so brilliant as two or 
