ANATIDJZ — FULIGULIN.E: SEA DUCKS. 923 



F. mari'la. (Qu. proper name? Qu. Gr. fiapiXT], marile, charcoal, from the pitch-bhick 

 fore-parts'?) Greater ScAUP DucK. Mussel Duck. Big Black-iieao. Green-head. 

 Black-neck. Gray-back. Blue-bill. Broad-bill. Raft Duck. Flock Dick. 

 Flocking Fowl. Shuffler. (These names also with several different qualifying terms, 

 when the present is distinguislied from the following species.) Adult ^ : No ring around 

 neck. Speculum white. Bill dull blue or pale bluish-gray, with black hooked nail; broad 

 and flat at end, where rounded tiut considerably wider than at base. Iris yellow. Feet livid 

 plumbeous, with blackish webs. Whole head, neck, and fore parts of body pitch-black, on 

 head with cliiefly green iridescence. Lower back, rua)p, tail, with both upper and under 

 coverts, black or blackish. Middle of back, scapulars, and most of under parts, white; inter- 

 scapulars, scapulars, sides of body, and lower belly waved with fine zigzag cross-lines of black, 

 quite in " canvas-back" style; flanks similar, more plainly white. Upper wing-coverts similar 

 to back, but darker and more obscurely grizzled ; greater coverts tipped with black, framing 

 anterior border of white speculum, vvhicli is formed by secondaries; white extending quite 

 across these, but their tips more or less perfectly black. Priuiaries brownish-black, becoming 

 gray for a space on the inner webs of all but the four outer ones (this gray space on the six 

 inner primaries, instead of a whitish space on the same six, being the alleged character of the 

 North American nearcticn in comparison with typical European marila). Axillars and most 

 under wing-coverts white, the marginal ones more or less mottled with dark gray. Adult 9 • 

 Bill and feet as before, but rather darker; eyes yellow. The black parts of $ replaced by 

 dusky or dark snuffy brown, which latter is the color of head, except a broad belt of pure white 

 around base of upper mandible, forming a conspicuous white face; chin also white. The 

 black-and-white vermiculation less distinctly developed or hardly apparent and the general 

 plumage more sordid or obscure : observe, however, the white mask on the snuff-colored head, 

 the yellow eyes and dark livid feet, and you will not mistake your bird for any other (except 

 F. affinis). The young ^ is like the adult 9; the old ^ in moult has a similar dress, and 

 there are various intermediate plumages. Length of (J 9 18.00-20.00 ; extent SO-OO-S-l-OO, 

 usually over 30.00; wing 8.50-9.00 ; tail 3.00 ; tarsus LoO; middle toe and claw 2.60; bill 

 2.00 on an average in length of culmen, ranging 1.90-2.10, and just about 1.00 in greatest 

 breadth. Nortliern ITemisphero ; North America at large ; on the whole more northerly than 

 F. aj/inis, thougli breeding no farther north — from near, possibly over, northern border of 

 U. 8., as Michigan and northwestern states, to far northward. Ranges in winter to Guate- 

 mala and West Indies. The more frequent U. S. Scaup is F. affinis. Nest on ground, in 

 June and July, lined with dark brown down with obscurely paler centres but no pale tips; 

 eggs G-12, greenish-gray or -brown, or drab-colored, 2.50-2.70 X about 1.72. This is a true 

 Sea-Duck, flocking in "rafts" in tidal estuaries in winter, but by no means exclusively mari- 

 time; wliether it is a good table-duck or not depends upon its state of flesh when it is killed, 

 and its food for some time previously. Its name is the same as that of the scaups or scalps, 

 upon which it feeds much, i. e. of the low banks whereon mussels and other marine inollusks 

 grow, and such diet tends to make the meat rank. Aythi/a marila of A. 0. U. (The commou 

 American Scaup was attempted to be distinguished as '^Ai/thi/a" marila neardica by Dr. 

 Stejncger, Orn. Expl. Kamtsch. 1885, p. Kil ; A. 0. U. Lists, 1880-95. No. 148; but North 

 American specimens are absolutely identical with the European : sec Bislio]), Auk, July, IH95, 

 I.p. 29:}-295; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. .Mus. xxvii, 1895, .359; Elliot, Wild Fowl, 1898, p. 28(1; 

 A. O. V. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 104 — as held in every edition of tiie Key since 1872.) 

 F. aUl'iiis. (Lat. affinix, allied, aflined ; ad i\m\ finis.) LESSER ScAUP DucK. LITTLE 

 I>la('K-iieai) (and other names of tiie foregoinir, witli or without (pialifying terms). Y.\- 

 trciiicly similar to the last ; gloss of head chictly purple; sides and flanks less closely waved 

 witli black ? Flank feathers saitl to be always waved, and those of F. marila to be always 

 while, in adull ^. Smaller: Leuirili 15.00-17.00; extent under .30.(KI ; wing 8.00 or less, 



