SYDNEY 
DRAFT 
Pint3.il Duck (Anas acuta) 
Current Status: Rare misrant, no recent records 
BIRDS , 
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Rrior Records: In the 1880 ! s Arundel collected three ducks^andir send them 
to Tristram who described tham as a new species, Dafila modesta . Tristram (1886) 
states that there were no ducks on the island when Arundel arrived but that 
"afterwards they appeared and were tolerably numerous for a time." Tristram believed 
that the duck was a resident species of the equatorial islands which"migrated" 
from one island to another. 
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a ii^descri^^ the ftbird as fa plain-coloured Pintail of diminutive size. The 
male specimeh is just discarding the young or summer dress, and assuming 
the delicately vermiculated and pencilled plumage of the flanks and back which 
characterize our oifwn Pintail in breeding dredd. On the flanks only two or three 
young feathers remain. 
isfswi 4, 
These 
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Thi - #"' Anas acuta, which is a sporadic migrant in large numbers 
( Medeiros, 1958)1 and which has been recorded from 
to the equatorial islands 
most of the Line Islands. 
Bryan (1942) stages that ducks !J used to be seen on the ponds but now both 
are gone. !i His statement may refer to Arundels original observations as do all d:her 
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mentions of ducks on Sydney. The ponds, despite® Bryan's statementjare still there 
and are probably still visited by ducks during certain years. 
