268 
THE PINTAIL DECK. 
the ground as swiftly as Wood Ducks, still carrying their tail erect, unless 
when seizing an insect that is on wing or resting on a blade of grass. I 
knew a particular spot in a corn-field, not many miles from Bayou Sara in 
Louisiana, where, even after a shower, I was sure to meet with this species, 
and where I could always have procured a good number, had I thought them 
likely to be prized at the dinner table. While I was at General Hernan- 
dezes in Florida, the Pintails were very numerous. They alighted every- 
where, and I shot a few in order to satisfy myself that they were of the 
same species as those I had been accustomed to see. On one occasion Psliot 
at a large flock swimming on a shallow pond in a large savannah, and 
wounded several, which I was surprised to see diving very expertly as I 
waded out for them, this species being by no means addicted to that prac- 
tice. Those which I have now and then wounded, while in a boat and in 
deep water, soon gave up diving, and surrendered, without exhibiting any 
of those feats of cunning performed by other species. 
The flight of the Pintails is very rapid, greatly protracted, and almost 
noiseless. They arrive in the Western Country mostly in the dusk of even- 
ing, and alight without much circumspection wherever they find water. 
They remain at night in the ponds where they feed, and continue there 
generally unless much disturbed. On such occasions they keep in the mid- 
dle of the water, to avoid their land enemies ; but the Virginian and Barred 
Owls not unfrequently surprise them, and force them to rise or make towards 
the shore, when they fall a prey to the nocturnal marauders. In the Middle 
States, they are highly esteemed for the table. There they arrive later and 
retire sooner towards their breeding-places, than in the country west of the 
Alleghany Mountains. 
Pintail Duck, Anas acuta , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. '72. 
Anas acuta, Bonap. Syn., p. 383. 
Anas caudacuta, Pintail Duck, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 441. 
Pintail or Winter Duck, Anas acuta , Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 386. 
Pintail Duck, Anas acuta , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 214 ; vol. v. p. 615. 
Male, 29, 36. Female, 22J, 34. 
From Texas, throughout the interior, to the Columbia river, and along 
the Atlantic coast to Maine, during winter and early spring. Breeds in the 
Arctic regions. Abundant. 
Adult Male. 
Bilt nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, depressed 
towards the end, the frontal angles short and obtuse. Upper mandible with 
the dorsal line at first sloping, then concave, towards the curved unguis 
nearly straight, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then broadly convex, 
