During heavy rains in winter, or after them, the Pintails are fond of alighting on our broad prairies, corn-fields and meadows; and in almost every puddle you may then find them busily engaged. They move over the ground as swiftly as Wood Ducks, still carrying their tail erect, unless when seizing an insect that is on wing or resting on a blade of grass. I knew a particular spot in a corn-field, not many miles from Bayou Sara in Louisiana, where, even after a shower, I was sure to meet with this species, and where I could always have produced a good number, had I thought them likely to be prized at the dinner-table. While I was at General Hernandez’s in Florida, the Pintails were very numerous. They alighted everywhere, and I shot a few in order to satisfy myself that they were of the same species as those I had been accustomed to see. On one occasion I shot at a large flock swimming on a shallow pond in a large savannah, and wounded several, which I was surprised to see diving very expertly as I waded out for them, this species being by no means addicted to that practice. Those which I have now and then wounded, while in a boat and in deep water, soon gave up diving, and surrendered, without exhibiting any of those feats of cunning performed by other species.
The flight of the Pintails is very rapid, greatly protracted, and almost noiseless. They arrive in the Western Country mostly in the dusk of evening, and alight without much circumspection wherever they find water. 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; but the Virginian and Barred Owls not unfrequently surprise them, and force them to rise or make towards the shore, when they fall a prey to the nocturnal marauders. In the Middle States, they are highly esteemed for the table. There they arrive later and retire sooner towards their breeding-places, than in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains.
Anas acuta, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 202.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 864.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 383.
Pintail Duck, Anas acuta, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 72. pl. 68. fig. 3.—Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 386.
Anas caudacuta, Pintail Duck, Swains. and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 441.
Adult Male. Plate CCXXVII. Fig. 1.
Bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, depressed towards the end, the frontal angles short and obtuse. Upper mandible with the dorsal line at first sloping, then concave, towards the curved unguis nearly straight, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then broadly convex, the sides convex, the edges soft, with about fifty internal lamellæ; unguis small, somewhat triangular, curved abruptly at the broad end. Nostrils subbasal, lateral, rather small, oval, pervious. Lower mandible flattish, its angle very long and narrow, the dorsal line very short, slightly convex, the sides convex, the edges soft, with about sixty lamellæ.
Head of moderate size, compressed, the forehead rounded. Neck rather long and slender. Body full and depressed. Wings rather small. Feet very short, placed rather far back; tarsus very short, compressed, at its lower part anteriorly with two series of scutella, the rest covered with reticulated angular scales. Toes obliquely scutellate above; first very small, free, with a narrow membrane beneath; third longest; fourth a little shorter, their connecting webs entire, reticulated, at the edge pectinate; claws small, curved, compressed, acute, the hind one smaller and more curved, that of the third toe with an inner sharp edge.
Plumage dense, soft, blended. Feathers of the head and neck short, on the hind head and neck elongated. Wings narrow, of moderate length, acute, the first quill longest, the second nearly equal, the rest rapidly graduated; outer secondaries broad and rounded; inner elongated and tapering, as are their coats, and the scapulars; first quill serrated on the outer edge, somewhat like that of an Owl. Tail of moderate length, tapering, of fourteen tapering feathers, of which the two middle project far beyond the rest.
Bill black, the sides of upper mandible light blue. Iris brown. Feet greyish-blue; claws black. Head, throat, and upper part of neck anteriorly greenish-brown, faintly margined behind with purplish-red; a small part of hind neck dark green; the rest, and the upper parts in general beautifully undulated with very narrow bars of brownish-black and yellowish-white, smaller wing-coverts, alula, and primary quills grey, the latter dark-brown towards the end; speculum of a coppery red, changing to dull green, edged anteriorly with light brownish-red, posteriorly with white; the inner secondaries, and the scapulars, black and green, with broad grey margins. Upper tail-coverts cream-coloured, the outer webs blackish and green; tail light grey, the middle feathers dark brown, glossed with green. On each side of the neck is an oblique band of white, of which colour are the under parts in general, the sides however undulated like the back, the lateral feathers of the rump cream-coloured, the lower tail-coverts black, those at the sides edged with white.