Measurements—Total length of the male, about 20 and the female, 18 inches; wing, 9 to 9 1/2; bill, about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches, and very broad at the end.
| PIN-TAIL OR SPRIG (Dafila acuta) |
THE PIN-TAIL
(Dafila acuta)
The pin-tail, or sprig is another very common duck of the Coast. Great numbers of this species breed on our mountain lakes and, maturing early, they are about the first to appear upon our shooting grounds, great flocks reaching as far south as San Diego county, the mouth of the Colorado river and the lakes and marshes of Lower California, Arizona and northern Mexico as early as the middle of August or the first of September. They come from the mountains plump and fat, and as soon as the shooting season is open prove quite acceptable to the epicure.
The pin-tail ranges throughout the territory covered by this work and far to the north of it, and the fact that they breed around the mountain lakes for the whole distance accounts for their early appearance on the shooting grounds of the Coast.
Color—Male—Head and neck, rich brown, with a white stripe running from the ociput down the sides of the neck to the breast; bill, lead color, with a black stripe along the top; back, gray; breast, white; central tail feathers, very long and pointed; speculum, light smoky brown, edged with white.
Female—The female is much more of an ocher brown than the male, and without the stripe on the neck or the lead color of the bill. The top of the head and the sides of the neck are streaked with brown; breast, spotted with dark brown; under parts, white. While it somewhat resembles the female mallard, the much narrower bill and difference of the speculum should prevent any error in identification. Besides the tail is pointed and the axillars are white, barred with dark brown.