506 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
as the 24th of May, and adds that a labourer 
employed on the embankments on the coast assured 
him he had seen a pair of Scaups and their young 
about that same place every year, but, as Mr. Cor- 
deaux adds, such information is not always to be 
trusted. ‘There seems to be one instance recorded 
of this bird breeding in the North of Scotland, Mr. 
Selby having found a female bird and a young one 
on a small loch in Sutherland.* The nest is said to 
be generally placed amongst aquatic herbage or large 
stones, near the edge of fresh water: little or no 
nest is made, but the eggs are covered with a quan- 
tity of down.+ 
The Scaup Duck is an expert swimmer and 
diver, and, like the Scoter, a wounded bird will 
occasionally give one a long row before it can be 
brought into the boat. It seeks its food for the most 
part under water: this consists of small fish, shell- 
fish, small crabs and mussels, aquatic insects and 
marine plants; it is consequently not particularly 
good eating. It is easily tamed and kept in confine- 
ment, and may be fed on seeds and grain, like other 
wild-fowl. I do not think it has been known to 
breed in confinement. 
In its general appearance the Scaup Duck, at a 
little distance, is like a Pochard, with a black instead 
* © Zoologist’ for 1867 (Second Series, p. 878), 
+ Yarrell, vol, iil., p. 346. 
