468 

 SCAUP. 



Fuligula marila {L.). 



Winter visitant, irregular in numbers ; very abundant in some 

 severe seasons ; occasionally occurs on inland waters. 



The earliest mention of the Scaup in connection with 

 Yorkshire is contained in Willughby's " Ornithology " (1678), 

 thus : — 



"It is called Scaup Duck from its feeding upon Scaup, 

 i.e., broken Shellfish ; varies infinitely in colour, especially 

 in Head and Neck, so that among a pack of forty or fifty 

 you shall not find two exactly alike. A thing not usual in 

 this kind. We owe this description and history of it to 

 Mr. Johnson " [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge]. (Will. 

 " Orn." 1678, pp. 28, 365.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Fuligitla marila. — Scaup — Has been shot near Doncaster ; is rare 

 near Sheffield ; obtained near Barnsley and Huddersfield, and not 

 infrequently met with near Sutton-on-Derwent in the neighbourhood 

 of York. 



One of the latest of our winter visitors, the Scaup does 

 not appear until towards the end of October, at the time 

 when we may expect Scoters, Longtails, and other " Norroway 

 Ducks," as the Yorkshire fishermen call them ; the earliest 

 date of which I have had personal experience was on the 

 19th of that month, in the year 1886, when one was obtained 

 near Redcar Pier. The numbers vary greatly in different 

 years, and are few or many according to the mildness or 

 severity of the season. 



In the Teesmouth district, before the advent of steam- 

 ships, and when the population was, comparatively speaking, 

 small, the Scaup was one of the commonest of the " sea-ducks." 

 Sir Cuthbert Sharp tells us in his " List of Birds of Hartlepool *' 

 that, in the winter of 1788-89, they were in such quantities 

 that above a thousand were caught in a week and sold for 

 i/- per dozen. I have been assured by an old Redcar fisher- 

 man, now (1906), living at the age of ninety-one, that when 



