54 Birds of Colorado 



lining its often bulky nest with down. The eggs are 

 said to be rather more greenish in shade than those of 

 the Redhead, and to measure 2' 50 x 1"75. 



Scaup Duck. Mania marila. 



A.O.U Checklist ao 148 — Colorado Records — Drew 81, p. 142 ; 

 85, p. 18 ; Morrison 88, p. 140 ; 89, p. 165 ; Cooke 97, pp. 55, 195 ; 06, 

 p. 44; Henderson 03, pp. 107, 110; 09, p. 226; Warren 09, p. 13; 

 Felger 09, p. 281. 



Description. — Closely resembling M. affinis — the next species — but 

 larger, the head glossed with green instead of purple, and the flanks 

 nearly white with but faint traces of the wavy bars. The female 

 can be distinguished from that of M. affinia by its larger size. Length 

 19-75; wing 9-0 ; tail 2-80; culmen 2-0 ; tarsus 1-55. Wing of female 

 8-50. 



Distribution. — The northern parts of the Old and New Worlds, south 

 in winter ; in America breeding from Minnesota and south-east British 

 Columbia north to Alaska ; in winter chiefly on the Atlantic coast 

 from Massachusetts to Delaware, in the Mississippi VaUey, and west- 

 wards to southern California. 



The Scaup is rather a rare duck in Colorado. It has been reported 

 from Boulder co. (Henderson) Barr (Hersey), Longmont (Felger), 

 Breckenridge (Carter), Coventry in April (Warren), and La Plata 

 in fall (Morrison) on migration, while Drew came across it in December 

 in San Juan co., at 9,000 feet, so that perhaps it spends the winter 

 in the southern part of the State. 



Lesser Scaup Duck. Marila affinis. 



A.O.U. Checkhst no 149 — Colorado Records — Aiken 72, p. 210 ; 

 Drew 81, p. 142 ; 85, p. 18 ; MorrLson 88 p. 140 ; 89, p. 165 ; Cooke 97, 

 pp. 18, 56, 195 ; 06, p. 46 ; Henderson 03, p. 107 ; 09, p. 225. 



Description. — Male — Head, neck, front half of the breast, and back 

 black ; the sides of the head glossed with purple ; lower-back, rump, 

 upper and under tail-coverts, tail and primaries, dusky brown or 

 blackish ; middle of the back, scapulars, and some of the upper coverts 

 white with narrow wavy bars of dusky ; below white, slightly mottled 

 with dusky on the lower abdomen and sides ; wing with a white patch 

 on the secondaries forming a speculum ; iris yellow, bill dull bluish 

 with nail black, legs slaty. Length 16-5 ; wing 8-0 ; tail 2-25 ; culmen 

 1 -7 ; tarsus 1 -2. 



The female is chiefly dark brown with a conspicuous white patch at 

 the base of the bill, a white chin,speculvu]i and abdomen. The male after 

 the breeding season moults to a plvunage like the female but darker. 



