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COMMON PINTAIL. 
free, without a lobe ; neck, tail, and scapulars 
elongated. 
Types — D. caudacuta, capensis . — Europe, Asia, 
Africa, America. 
Note . — Gregarious, feed chiefly on vegetables ; 
lacustrine or fluviatile. 
Common Pintail, Dafila caudacuta. — Anas 
caudacuta, Rap. — Anas acuta, Linn. — Common 
Pintail or Sea Pheasant of British authors . — This 
beautiful duck is only a periodical visitant with us, 
arriving late in autumn, and occurring chiefly during 
winter, both in the decoys and inland lake3 and 
fens of the south, and on the coasts of the north of 
England and Scotland. In Scotland, however, it is 
by no means frequent, and it is nearly certain, as 
Mr. Selby has remarked, that the long-tailed duck 
or Harelda glacialis has been mistaken for it on the 
Western Islands and northern coasts, where its pre- 
sence lias been recorded as frequent. In the south 
of Scotland a few specimens have occurred to us 
every winter, and we once shot a pair in immature 
dress in the month of September feeding at dusk on 
some wet stubble, in company with the mallard 
and common teal. We have occasionally observed 
them in this state of plumage in small numbers, 
mingling for a short period with the mallard, about 
or rather previous to the period of the migration 
and arrival of the winter birds of passage. Through 
the whole of winter and spring also, specimens 
