LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN ^VILD FOWL. 217 



FULIX AFFINIS (Eyton). 

 LESSER SCAUP DTJCK. 

 HABITS. 



Unlike the larger scaup duck, this species is distinctly an American 

 duck, but of wider distribution on this continent. It is more essen- 

 tially an inland species, showing a decided preference for the smaller 

 lakes, ponds, marshes, and streams, whereas its larger relative seems 

 to prefer the larger lakes in the interior and the seacoast in winter. 

 Its breeding range is more extensive and its center of abundance 

 during the breeding season is much farther south, its chief breeding 

 grounds being in the prairie regions of central Canada and the North- 

 ern States. Though differing in distribution and in their haunts, the 

 two species are closely related and much alike in appearance, so 

 much so that so good an observer as Audubon failed to distinguish 

 them; nearly all that he wrote about them evidently referred to the 

 lesser scaup, with which he was most familiar, and he criticised 

 Wilson for some of his remarks which evidently referred to the greater 

 scaup. Adult males of the two species are, of course, easily recog- 

 nized, but the females and young birds are so much alike and vary 

 so much in size that they are often confused. Rev. W. F. Henninger 

 writes me that a series of Fulix affinis which he has examined measure 

 up to the minimum measurements given for Fulix marila and that 

 the males show both purple and green reflections on the head ; this 

 suggests the possibility of intergradation between the two species. 



Spring. — The lesser scaup duck is not one of the earliest migrants, 

 but it begins to move northward from its winter home soon after the 

 melting ice and snow begin to indicate the coming of spring. On its 

 migration it follows the courses of the larger streams and rivers, but 

 when it settles down to feed it soon spreads out into the sloughs, 

 marshes and shallow ponds. Prof. Lynds Jones (1909) says that, 

 in Ohio, " it literally swarms in the marshes during late March and 

 the most of April, v/here feeding companies cover large areas of the 

 open waters of the marshes." Where spring shooting is allowed it 

 flies wildly about, seeking refuge on the open lakes beyond range, 

 but on certain reservoirs where it is not molested it appreciates the 

 security and becomes very tame. In such places a few birds linger 

 well into the summer and some apparently remain to breed. 



Courtship. — Very little has been published about the courtship of 

 this species, but Audubon (1S40) makes the following brief reference 

 to it: 



At the approach of spring the drakes pay their addresses to the females, before 

 they set out on their journey. At that period the males become more active and 

 lively, bowing their heads, opening their broad bills, and uttering a kind of quack, 

 which to the listener seems produced by wind in their stomach, but notwithstanding 

 appears to delight their chosen females. 



