DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: PINTAIL 
119 
underparts spotted. Immature: “The immature male is variously intermediate 
between the adult male and female; the immature female resembles the adult 
female, but the underparts are more heavily streaked or spotted” (Chapman). 
Range. —North America. Breeds along Bering Sea and Arctic coast from 
Alaska to west coast of Hudson Bay, rarely to Ontario and New Brunswick south to 
Iowa, Nebraska, northern Colorado, northern Utah, and southern California; 
winters from southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, northeastern Colorado, 
Kansas, and southern Ohio, eastward to New Jersey and south to Porto Itico and 
Panama; also in Hawaii. 
State Records. —The spring migration of the Pintail begins early—a specimen 
was taken February 10, 1856, at Dona Ana (Pope); March 3, 1900, at Mesilla Park 
(Ford); and by March 16, 1895, the species had reached Halls Peak in the northern 
part of the State (Barber), while on the Rio Grande near Albuquerque several 
hundred were estimated March 21, 1914. On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve in 1914 
the species was noted in February and also on March 6; several hundred were esti¬ 
mated March 13, and several thousands March 23, but the numbers were beginning 
to fall off on March 24-25, and only 100 were noted April 27, though 400 were 
estimated April 29 (Cooper). [At Silver City it is fairly abundant spring and fall 
(Kellogg, 1927).! It does not breed in New Mexico, but on its return in the fall 
was noted at Isleta August 24, 1905 (Hollister); was the commonest duck on Max¬ 
well Reservoir near Koehler Junction, seen August 19, and 21, September 2, 6, 
and 12, and October 7, 1913 (Kalmbach); was noted at Albuquerque, September 
16, 1900 (Birtwell); La Jar a Lake September 17, 1904 (Bailey); near Santa Rosa 
September 26, 1902; near Corona, October 15-16, 1902 (Gaut); and until Novem¬ 
ber, 1903, at Patterson (Andrus). [Common in October, 1917 and 1918, on the Rio 
Grande near Albuquerque and a few seen during the winters (Leopold). On De¬ 
cember 9, 1918, 15 were seen on a windmill tank 24 miles northeast of Engle, at 
about 4,/00 feet (Ligon).] They were reported on the Carlsbad Reserve in January, 
1915, noted during the winter of 1915-16; [a few small flocks seen, December, 1916 
(Willett). On the Rio Grande Reserve (Elephant Butte), 100 were noted November 
23-December 9, 1916 (Willett.).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —On dry ground, often far from water in grass, weeds, or low bushes, a 
slight depression sparingly lined with grass, straw, or stubble, and brown down 
(darker than Shovellers) with whitish centers. Eggs: 5 to 12, pale olive-green 
or olive-buff. 
Food. —Seeds and stems of rushes, duck weeds, pondweeds, wild celery, wild 
millett, wapato, coon-tail, musk grasses, frog bit, widgeon-grass, and other water 
plants; beechnuts, acorns, berries, and insects, including grasshoppers and mosqui¬ 
toes, and also crustaceans. 
General Habits. —The Pintails feed in the shallows with Shovellers 
and Blue-winged Teal. When standing erect the handsome drake is 
easily recognized by his long upreared neck with its striking white finger 
streak, and when sleeping with head in feathers can be recognized by 
the large white ball made by his white underparts; while the long¬ 
necked, slender brown duck may be told close at hand by her narrow 
bill, slightly pointed tail and U-shaped markings, and on the wing by 
the white-tipped secondaries that make white bands at right angles to 
her brown body. The little brown teal of the neighborhood can be dis¬ 
tinguished from their larger sisters by size and told apart by their wing 
