The Brown Pintail is the commonest Duck in the Argentine Republic, and unites in the largest flocks. It is also, according to Philippi and Landbeck, the commonest species in Chili. It ranges from South Brazil and Peru to the Magellan Straits and the Falklands; but is probably most abundant in the Plata district and in North Patagonia. In the autumn it sometimes visits the pampas in immense numbers, to feed on the seed of the giant thistle (_Carduus mariana_); and on these occasions I have known as many as sixty killed at one shot. The birds, however, soon become wary when feeding on the open plains in large flocks, and it then becomes impossible to approach them without a trained horse. The Ducks pay no attention to horses and cattle browsing near them; and the trained animal, with the gunner concealing his gun and person behind it, feeds quietly along, and gradually approaches the flock until within range. In the valley of the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, the Pintails sometimes cause serious damage to the farmers, coming up in clouds from the river by night to devour the ripe grain. In favourable seasons the Pintail is a resident; but like the marsh-gulls, pigeons, the American golden plover, and all birds that live and move in immense bodies, it travels often and far in search of food or water. A season of scarcity will quickly cause them to disappear from the pampas; and sometimes, after an absence of several months, a day's rain will end with the familiar sound of their cry and the sight of their long trains winging their way across the darkening heavens. Their nest is made on the ground, under the grass or thistles, at a distance from the water, and is plentifully lined with down plucked from the bosom of the sitting bird. The eggs are seven or eight in number and of a deep cream-colour. 351. DAFILA BAHAMENSIS (Linn.). (BAHAMA PINTAIL.) +Anas bahamensis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 515 (Rio Uruguay). +Dafila bahamensis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 130; _iid. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 146 (Buenos Ayres), et 1876, p. 393; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 192 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 274 (Carhué, Pampas); _Burm. P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 367. _Description._--Above reddish, brown; feathers with their centres blackish; lower back blackish; upper tail-coverts and tail fawn-colour; wings dark slaty black; broad speculum bronzy green, margined above and below by a fawn-coloured band, the lower band with an interior black margin; edgings of the external secondaries fawn-colour: beneath brownish fawn-colour, entirely covered with obsolete black spots; throat and cheeks and front neck pure white; bill black, with a red spot at the base on each side; feet brown: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 8·4, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar. _Hab._ South America.