132 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS 
like the Mallards. On the water, on land, or on the wing, se¬ 
veral may generally be killed at a shot. They are scarcely noc¬ 
turnal, but rest much in the middle of the day; basking in the 
sunshine whilst on the water, whenever they can indulge in this 
luxury. 
“ The flight of the Pintails is very rapid, greatly protracted, 
and almost noiseless. They remain at night in the ponds where 
they feed; and continue there generally, unless much disturbed. 
On such occasions they keep in the middle of the water, to 
avoid their land enemies. In the Middle States they are highly 
esteemed for the table. There they arrive later, and retire 
sooner toward their breeding places, than in the country west 
of the Alleghany Mountains.”— Audubon’s Birds of America 
This species, like the last, is seldom found, in the northern 
part of the Middle and Eastern States, in such large flocks, as 
it would appear to use in the West. It is often found soli¬ 
tary ; and very seldom, in my own experience, are more than 
three or four to be found in company. 
I entertain some suspicion that the Pintail Duck occasionally 
breeds in New Jersey and in New York. In the former State, 
on one occasion, I shot an adult female bird, in full plumage, as 
late as the twelfth of May. She rose, before a dead point from 
an old setter, out of a thick tuft of alders on a large marsh mea¬ 
dow. I could find no traces of a nest, but can conceive no 
object but that of nidification which should have induced the 
bird to seek such a haunt. I have several times shot these birds 
during spring Snipe-shooting, so late as the end of April. 
The American Widgeon, Anas Americana , is occasionally 
found on fresh waters, especially to the westward of the Ohio ; 
but rarely frequents rivers, except on their estuaries and sand¬ 
bars, where it associates more with the Fuligulce , or Sea Ducks, 
than with its immediate congeners. It is found on the Chesa¬ 
peake with the Canvass-back, and is known as the u Bald- 
pate.” 
