diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponent.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponent.java
index d6d8f7e31..3a5c04422 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponent.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponent.java
@@ -45,6 +45,13 @@ public abstract class ProjectComponent implements Cloneable {
     protected Location location = Location.UNKNOWN_LOCATION;
     // CheckStyle:VisibilityModifier ON
 
+    /**
+     * Description of this component, if any.
+     * @deprecated since 1.6.x.
+     *             You should not be accessing this variable directly.
+     */
+    protected String description;
+
     /** Sole constructor. */
     public ProjectComponent() {
     }
@@ -97,6 +104,29 @@ public abstract class ProjectComponent implements Cloneable {
         this.location = location;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Sets a description of the current action. This may be used for logging
+     * purposes.
+     *
+     * @param desc Description of the current action.
+     *             May be <code>null</code>, indicating that no description is
+     *             available.
+     *
+     */
+    public void setDescription(String desc) {
+        description = desc;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the description of the current action.
+     *
+     * @return the description of the current action, or <code>null</code> if
+     *         no description is available.
+     */
+    public String getDescription() {
+        return description;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Logs a message with the default (INFO) priority.
      *
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Task.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Task.java
index 1ad26b064..c8254da35 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Task.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/Task.java
@@ -41,13 +41,6 @@ public abstract class Task extends ProjectComponent {
      */
     protected Target target;
 
-    /**
-     * Description of this task, if any.
-     * @deprecated since 1.6.x.
-     *             You should not be accessing this variable directly.
-     */
-    protected String description;
-
     /**
      * Name of this task to be used for logging purposes.
      * This defaults to the same as the type, but may be
@@ -141,29 +134,6 @@ public abstract class Task extends ProjectComponent {
         this.taskType = type;
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Sets a description of the current action. This may be used for logging
-     * purposes.
-     *
-     * @param desc Description of the current action.
-     *             May be <code>null</code>, indicating that no description is
-     *             available.
-     *
-     */
-    public void setDescription(String desc) {
-        description = desc;
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Returns the description of the current action.
-     *
-     * @return the description of the current action, or <code>null</code> if
-     *         no description is available.
-     */
-    public String getDescription() {
-        return description;
-    }
-
     /**
      * Called by the project to let the task initialize properly.
      * The default implementation is a no-op.
diff --git a/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponentTest.java b/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponentTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e195b4ec0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tests/junit/org/apache/tools/ant/ProjectComponentTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/*
+ *  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ *  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ *  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ *  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ *  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ *  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ *  limitations under the License.
+ *
+ */
+
+package org.apache.tools.ant;
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+public class ProjectComponentTest extends TestCase {
+
+    public ProjectComponentTest(String name) {
+        super(name);
+    }
+
+    public void testClone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
+        Project expectedProject = new Project();
+        Location expectedLocation = new Location("foo");
+        String expectedDescription = "bar";
+
+        // use an anonymous subclass since ProjectComponent is abstract
+        ProjectComponent pc = new ProjectComponent() {
+            };
+        pc.setProject(expectedProject);
+        pc.setLocation(expectedLocation);
+        pc.setDescription(expectedDescription);
+
+        ProjectComponent cloned = (ProjectComponent) pc.clone();
+        assertNotSame(pc, cloned);
+        assertSame(cloned.getProject(), expectedProject);
+        assertSame(cloned.getLocation(), expectedLocation);
+        assertSame(cloned.getDescription(), expectedDescription);
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file