The Pintail is stated by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey to be rather
local in Ireland, and rarely to be met with on the great
loughs of the north; but south of Athlone, and especially
on the estuaries of Clare, Connaught and Kerry, they are
numerous. He says that he has seen female Pintails with
young broods in June, on Loughs Mask and Corrib, and in
summer on Lough Inagli, Connemara ; and he asserts, apparently
on the authority of the Hon. B. Fitzpatrick, that one
or two pairs breed every year at Abbeyleix, Queen’s County,
in Lord Castletown’s famous duck-preserves. Confirmation
of this would be interesting.
The Pintail has been known to breed in the Faeroes ; it
appears to be of general distribution in Iceland during the
summer months; and in Greenland it is of accidental
occurrence. Its breeding-range extends over Scandinavia,
Denmark, Northern and Central Germany, Poland, and a
great part of Russia ; the species being generally distributed
over the rest of Europe on migration. Mr. Abel Chapman
observed about a dozen adult males at Santa Olaya, Anda-
lucia, so late as the 8th of May. In winter it is found
throughout the Mediterranean ; Northern Africa ; Egypt ;
Asia Minor; India as far south as Ceylon and Burmah;
Borneo; China; and Japan; its summer range stretching
over Central and Northern Asia, up to, and even beyond,
the Arctic Circle. The Pintail is also generally distributed
throughout North America, from Alaska to Labrador in
summer; its migrations extending over the greater part of
the United States, and down to Mexico, the Antilles, Costa
Rica, and Panama.
The nest of the Pintail is made in rushes and strong
herbage; the eggs, usually seven or eight in number, are
greenish-white in colour, rather elongated in form, and
average in measurements 2-1 by 1*4 in. The flight of this
species is extremely rapid, but no particular order or figure
is observed among the ‘ skeins.’ Flocks consisting entirely
of males are not uncommon. It is observed to feed by
preference in shallow water, and it selects plants, especially
Equisetum, insects and their larvae, and mollusca. Jardine
mentions having once shot two while they were feeding in
the evening on a wet stubble field, in company with the
common Wild Duck. This species is one of the best of our
various Ducks for the table ; the flesh is excellent, and in
great esteem.
The Pintail is rather a silent bird by day, but at night, or
when disturbed, it utters a soft quack, low in tone, but audible
at a considerable distance. Montagu says “ that the notes
of the Pintail are extremely soft and inward ; the courting
note is always attended with a jerk of the head; the other
greatly resembles that of a very young kitten. In the
spring the male Pintail indicates his feelings by suddenly
raising his body upright in the water, and bringing his bill
close to his breast, uttering at the same time a soft note.
This gesticulation is frequently followed by a singular jerk
of the hinder part of the body, which in turn is thrown up
above the water.”
Lord Stanley informed Montagu that he had a hybrid
brood produced two seasons following between a female
• Pintail and a male Wigeon; the hybrid birds laid eggs during
two successive seasons, but they were unproductive. In
December, 1831, the Hon. Twiselton Fiennes exhibited at
the Zoological Society a specimen of a hybrid Duck, bied
between a male Pintail and a Common Duck. It was one of
a brood of six, several of which were subsequently confined
with the male Pintail from which they sprung, and produced
young. A specimen of a female of this second brood was
also exhibited, and the three part-bred Pintails having bied
again with the true Pintail, the offspring lost all the appearance
of the Common Duck. Hybrids between the Mallard and
the Pintail are not uncommon, and the plumage of the male
is very beautiful. In former Editions it was stated that
Pintails did not breed readily in confinement, and that
neither the Zoological Society nor the Ornithological Society
had succeeded with them, although both Societies had several
pairs on waters and islands apparently well adapted to their
habits ; but Mr. P. L. Sclater asserts that the Pintail does
well in captivity, breeding freely in the Zoological Gardens ;