208 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



a gentle cry like the words Pa-whoo, only uttered once. As he makes this show, the 

 female sometimes swims round him, lowering the head and dipping the bill in the 

 surface of the water and maldng a gentle call, Chup-chup, or Chup-chup-cherr-err. 

 Quite as frequently the cry of the male is uttered after the head is raised and slightly 

 lowered. The male also utters a very low whistle. Except the harsh loud cry of the 

 female, all these calls of pairing scaup are very low in tone, and the spectator must be 

 within a few yards of the birds to hear them. 



Nesting. — The best known, and probably the most populous, 

 breeding grounds of the greater scaup duck are in northern Alaska. 

 Dr. Joseph GrinncU (1900) describes three nests, which he found in 

 the Kotzebue Sound region, as follows: 



In the Kowak Delta this species was quite common in June, and on the 14th of 

 that month I took a set of 11 fresh eggs, also securing the female as she flushed from 

 the nest. This nest was on a high, dry hummock, about 10 yards from the edge of 

 a lake. It was almost hidden from view by tall, dead grass of the previous year's 

 growth. The eggs rested on a bed of finely broken grass stems, while the rim of the 

 nest was indicated by a narrow margin of down. A second set of 10 fresh eggs was 

 taken on the same day and the nest was similar in construction, but was out on the 

 tundra between two lakes, and fully a quarter of a mile from either. A set of seven 

 fresh eggs taken on the 15th was quite ditferently situated. The nest was almost 

 without feathers or down, and consisted of a neat saucer of matted dry grass blades, 

 supported among standing marsh grass and about 4 inches above the water. It was 

 in a broad, marshy swale about 30 feet from a small pond of open water. The swale 

 was drained into the main river channel by a slough, so that in this case there was 

 little danger of a rise in the water of more than an inch or two. 



Mr. Hersey collected four sets for me in the vicinity of St. Michael 

 in 1915. Three of the nests were more or less concealed in tufts of 

 grass close to the shores of small ponds; the nest cavities were lined 

 with fine, dry grass and in one case a well-formed nest of this material 

 was made; no down was found in the newest nests containing fresh 

 eggs, but, as incubation increased, considerable down became mixed 

 with the grass. One nest, found June 19, was in a clump of dead 

 flags in a pond 3 feet out from the shore and surrounded by water; 

 the nest was made of bits of broken flags mixed with dark gray down 

 and a few white breast feathers of the duck; it contained eight eggs. 



Mr. Chase Littlejolm (1899) has published the following notes on 

 a nesting colony of this species which he found on an island near the 

 end of the Alaska Peninsula. He writes: 



The island contains about 4 acres, one-lialf of which is about 50 feet above sea 

 level; but on both the east and west ends there is quite an area only a few feet 

 above water. These gravel points are covered for the most part with a species of 

 salt weed less than 1 foot in height, common to the seashore of that country. Among 

 these weeds on the west end there is a colony of about 50 pairs of scaups which have, 

 to my knowledge, bred there for several years; while on the east end not a single 

 nest can be found, although the conditions are practically the same. Furthermore, 

 there is quite an area on the west end well suited to their wants; but ihey prefer to 

 occupy a narrow strip along the edge of the weeds and place their nests close together, 

 some of them not over 2 feet apart, others 10 at the most, showing that they prefer to 



