122 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Notes. — Call a discordant scaup, scaup. Similar to the guttural sounds 

 made by the Canvas-back, Redhead and other diving Ducks (Elliot). 

 Also a soft purring whistle (Eaton). 



Season. — Common migrant coastwise; September rarely, common October 

 to April. 



Range. — Northern parts of northern hemisphere. Breeds in America from 

 Minnesota, North Dakota and British Columbia to central Keewatin, 

 Great Slave Lake and the Aleutian Islands ; has bred casually on Mag- 

 dalen Islands in Ontario and Michigan; winters from Maine to the 

 Bahama Islands and from the Aleutian Islands, Nevada, Colorado 

 and Lake Ontario to southern California and the Gulf coast; rare mi- 

 grant in Central Ungava, Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 



History. 

 This bird was formerly known as the American Scaup, 

 but it is indistinguishable from European specimens. Com- 

 monly as this Duck is seen on our coasts in fall, winter and 

 spring its habits and food are not as yet very well known. 

 Its numbers seem to have decreased much in the past. 

 It was formerly taken in numbers in some of the interior 

 ponds and lakes of Massachusetts, where it commonly asso- 

 ciated with the Black Ducks, but reports from all the interior 

 counties of the State indicate that it had decreased from fifty 

 to ninety per cent, in the twenty-seven years prior to 1908. 

 Only two observers in the coast counties put the decrease as 

 low as twenty-five per cent, within that period, but many 

 record a recent increase. Sixteen Massachusetts reports on 

 the species note it as increasing; forty-three show a decrease. 

 This was one of the first Ducks to respond to spring protec- 

 tion in Canada and New England, and has been increasing 

 along the New England coast now for several years. Unlike 

 the Lesser Scaup it appears to be fond of salt-water bays, 

 and lives and feeds much in such localities along our coast in 

 winter. Long Island Sound, the great South Bay, the waters 

 about Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bay all attract this 

 species in fall, winter and spring, but it rarely winters in 

 numbers much farther north on the coast of New England. 

 A few years ago it was seen mainly in small flocks, but now 

 flocks of thousands may sometimes be observed along the 

 New England coast. As they have not increased so much 



