[f. SPRIG sb.1]
1. A short pointed tail.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1108/4. A Bay Mare above 14 hands, a Sprig Tail. Ibid. (1690), No. 2607/4. He had with him a white Mungrel crop-ear’d Dog, with a sprig Tail. Ibid. (1721), No. 6000/3. A black Gelding … with a Sprig Tail, a little Hair upon it.
1772. Oxf. Jrnl., 21 Nov., 1. A black horse with a sprig tail.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 16. There’s the little Hirish ’oss with the sprig-tail.
2. U.S. A species of duck; = PINTAIL 2.
1782. T. Jefferson, Notes St. Virginia (1787), 118. Ballcoot. Sprigtail. Didapper or Dopchick.
1814. A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., VIII. 73. The Sprigtail is an elegantly formed, long-bodied Duck, the neck longer and more slender than most others.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, Introd. 16. In the shoal-water class are the mallard, sprigtail or pintail. Ibid., 166. Many shots will frequently be had at wood-duck, teal, and sprigtails in this sport.
