Illustrated by Carry Akroyd
A story in Viscount Grey’s The Charm of Birds concerns that most elegant of ducks, the pintail (Anas acuta). She was his only bird to earn a sentimental name, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was one of a brood reared by a wild pintail, which in 1921 ‘paid the enclosure at Fallodon the compliment of nesting there’. It was a considerable compliment. Like most of our wild ducks, the pintail is principally a winter migrant – 500 pairs are resident; 20,000 individuals migrate here. Only the brood (one male, two females) to which Elizabeth belonged dared take corn from Grey’s cupped palm. His pinioned pintails would take only bread. In 1922, the grain-feeders left for the summer. The two females returned that autumn and left in spring 1923. Only one returned in the autumn and for convenience was named Elizabeth. Elizabeth spurned being fed among the resident pintails, choosing a mound next to...
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