PINTAIL-DUCK
Dafila acuta
Plumage of back and flanks grey; the large scapulars are long-pointed and edged with buff; brilliant metallic green bar on wing; head brown; neck and under-parts white; the tail long, and two centre feathers very narrow and longer than the rest; beak slate-grey; legs black; eyes brown. The female is a plain, mottled brown bird, tail pointed but not so long as the drake. Entire length, 23 inches.
AT different times of the year different birds come in gigantic flocks. Thus at one time, owing to the vast migration of these Pintail-Ducks, it might well be said they were far and away the commonest; but a little later you hardly see one, and wherever you go it is the Shoveller Duck that is met with, whilst at another time it would be the Teal, or the Pochard. So that to settle the point exactly—What is the commonest duck of the country?—is not altogether an easy one, and I do not intend to speak dogmatically; but I have placed this duck first on the list, because not only do you meet with it in enormous numbers, but you also see it represented more frequently on the walls of temples and tombs. The well-known hieroglyph
