It was my cousin the TEAL who said he was not born to sing and look pretty
flitting among the trees, but was a useful bird, born to be "done brown"
and look pretty in a dish. Well, I am one of that kind, too.
_Pin-tail_, _Sprig-tail_, _Sharp-tail_, _Water Pheasant._ I am known by all
of these names, though people only use one at a time, I believe.
You will find us Pin-tails generally in fresh water. We move in very large
flocks, in company with our cousins the Mallards, feeding and traveling
with them for days. But when it comes to flying we distance them everytime.
Our flight is rapid and graceful, the most graceful, they say, of all the
Duck tribe.
Instead of a song we have a call note, a low plaintive whistle which we
repeat two or three times. It is easily imitated, and often, thinking a
companion calls us, we swim in the direction of the sound, when "bang" goes
a gun and over flops one or more _Pin-tails_.
We have other enemies beside man, and have to keep a sharp lookout all the
time. Way up north one day, a Fox stood on the borders of a lake and
watched a flock of Ducks feeding among the rushes. He was very hungry and
the sight of them made his mouth water.
"How can I get one of those fine, fat fellows for my dinner," he muttered,
and Mr. Fox, who is very cunning, you know, remained very quiet, while he
thought, and thought, and thought.
"Oh, I have it!" he presently exclaimed, and going to the windward of the
Ducks, set afloat a lot of dead rushes or grass, which drifted among the
flock, causing no alarm or suspicion whatever.
Then Mr. Fox, taking a bunch of grass in his mouth, slipped into the lake,
and with nothing but the tips of his ears and nose above the water, drifted
down among the rushes and the Ducks, too.
Such a squawking as there was, when Mr. Fox opened his red mouth, seized
the largest of the flock, and with a chuckle put back for the shore.
"Hm!" said he, after enjoying his dinner, "what stupid things Ducks are to
be sure."
A mean trick, wasn't it? Nobody but a Fox--or a man--would have thought of
such a thing. I'd rather be an innocent Duck than either of them though my
name is _Pin-tail_. Wouldn't you?
[Illustration: PIN-TAIL DUCK.]
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