The Pintail loi 
three year old birds, and often show their youthfulness by their shorter tail, 
dull colouring on the head, and reticulated black bars traversing the white 
stripes on either side of the neck. Some young Pintail drakes are very 
backward in assuming their full dress ; two young males that I procured in 
1899 did not throw off all signs of immaturity until July 3, and on July 6 
they both commenced to change into the eclipse, and were only a few days 
later than an old drake in assuming the brown plumage. 
These young males are most erratic in the portions of the plumage which 
they change in the autumn. One will entirely moult the breast before any 
other part of the plumage has commenced to fall, another will change that of 
the head and neck, and another that of the back and tail. A general rule seems 
to apply to all the young surface-feeding drakes, namely, that the moult and 
colour-change are more or less simultaneous over the entire plumage ; but the 
Pintail must be held to be the exception. Some individuals certainly follow 
the general rule, but many cast their feathers ' in patches.' 
Young Pintail drakes will certainly mate in the first spring, like Mallard 
and Teal. 
The AdtUt Female. — The prevailing colour is brown, with black spots 
throughout the head, and as to the neck, and back, and scapular, black feathers 
with brown edges. In the winter, the breasts of individual females vary con- 
siderably, some being nearly pure white from the chest to the vent, others 
creamy buff or greyish-white buff with dark brown-grey spots in places, and 
buff-white with spots all over the breast and vent. As the breeding season 
approaches, the light breast birds without spots begin to show them, and in 
June all females are more or less heavily spotted. In June, too, many dark 
females attain buff bars and spots on the back and scapulars. The adult 
female has a green-bronze wing-spot like the male, but not nearly so bright. 
The lesser wing-coverts are brown-grey, and sometimes beautifully edged with 
white like those of old female Wigeon. The brown tails also are well barred 
with buff. . 
