NYKOCA MAKILA 279 



Measurements.—" Length IS'O inches, expanse 28'0, wing .S'75, tail 2'5, 

 tarsus 1'33, bill along ridge 1'83." 



Colours of soft parts.— " Bill as in the male, but darker; the feet dull 

 leaden-grey, with the webs dusky." (MacoilUvnuj.) 



" Young' Male has the white at the base of the bill like the adult female, 

 but it is of a darker and richer colour." {Salvadori.) 



Hume's young male had the wing only 7'9 inches ; bill straight from 

 base to tip 1"7, and at its greatest width '87. 



" The very young female is equally like the young Nyroca, but it has the 

 chin, throat, and a portion of the lores white, only a little speckled with 

 rufous-brown (which white is not exhibited in any of my young White- 

 eyes), besides the characteristic bill so much broader than those of young 

 Nyroca of the same age and sex." (Hume.) 



The measurements of a young female were: wing 7'1 inches; bill 

 straight from base to tip I'S, and at its widest part '78. 



Young in Down. — " Crown, nape, and upper parts uniform dark olive- 

 brown ; throat, sides of the bead, and fore part of the neck yellowish-white ; 

 a dull greyish band crosses the lower neck, rest of the underparts dull 

 yellowish, the flanks greyish yellow ; upper mandible blackish, tooth of the 

 beak yellowish ; under mandible yellow." {Dresser.) 



Distribution. — The Scaup is a duck of very northern latitudes, 

 breeding in the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions in the extreme 

 North of Europe, Asia, and America up to, if not beyond, north-east 

 latitude 70°, in Asia. In the winter it extends south to the basin 

 of the Mediterranean, Southern Kussia, and Asia Minor, and Central 

 and South-central Asia, as far south as Northern India, South China, 

 and Japan and Formosa, whilst in America it extends as far south 

 (vide Salvadori) as Guatemala. In Africa it does not extend south 

 at all ; von Heuglin and, after him, Seebohm record it from 

 Abyssinia ; but Salvadori says in the ' Catalogue ' most emphatically, 

 " not (to my knowledge) reaching Abyssinia." Even here the 

 southern limits given are rarely attained, large numbers of birds 

 remaining all the winter north of latitude 40°. The Scaup is only 

 a very rare winter visitor to Northern India, and up to the date of 

 the publication of the fourth volume of the ' Fauna of British India,' 

 I can find no other record of its occurrence outside those noted by 

 Blanford, viz. : — 



" Isolated occurrences have been recorded from Kashmir, Kulu 

 and Nepal in the Himalayas, and the neighbourhood of Attock, 

 Gurgaou near Delhi, and Karachi in the plains of India, and even 

 Bombay." 



