96 
PINTAIL DUCK. 
the sprigtail. Some ducks, when aroused, disperse in different 
directions ; but the sprigtails, when alarmed, cluster confusedly 
together as they mount, and thereby afford the sportsman a 
fair opportunity of raking them with advantage. They gene- 
rally leave the Delaware about the middle of March, on the 
way to their native regions, the north, where they are most 
numerous. They inhabit the whole northern parts of Europe 
and Asia, and, doubtless, the corresponding latitudes of Ame- 
rica. Are said, likewise, to be found in Italy. Great flocks 
of them are sometimes spread along the isles and shores of 
Scotland and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both these 
countries. On the marshy shores of some of the bays of Lake 
Ontario, they are often plenty in the months of October and 
November. I have also met with them at Louisville, on the 
Ohio. 
The pintail duck is twenty-six inches in length, and two 
feet ten inches in extent ; the bill is a dusky lead colour ; irides, 
dark hazel ; head and half of the neck, pale brown, each side 
of the neck marked with a band of purple violet, bordering 
the white ; hind part of the upper half of the neck, black, 
bordered on each side by a stripe of white, which spreads over 
the lower part of the neck before ; sides of the breast and up- 
per part of the back, white, thickly and elegantly marked with 
transverse undulating lines of black, here and there tinged with 
pale buff ; throat and middle of the belly, white, tinged with 
cream ; flanks, finely pencilled with waving lines ; vent, white ; 
under tail-coverts, black ; lesser wdng-coverts, brown ash ; 
greater, the same, tipt with orange ; below which is the spe- 
culum, or beauty spot, of rich, golden green, bordered below 
with a band of black, and another of white | primaries, dusky 
brown ; tertials, long, black, edged with white, and tinged with 
rust ; rump and tail-coverts, pale ash, centred with dark brown ; 
tail, greatly pointed, the two middle tapering feathers being 
full five inches longer than the others, and black, the rest, 
brown ash, edged with white ; legs, a pale lead colour. 
The female has the crown of a dark brown colour ; neck, of 
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