NYROCA MARILA 281 



along the coast, and are far more commonly met with there than 

 they are inland. When they are met with inland it will be generally 

 found that they keep to great lakes, such as Lake Baikal, Lake 

 Balkast and the Sea of Ural, etc. ; in these vast extents of water they 

 can live, according to their wont, on the water altogether, taking 

 neither to land nor air, except in cases of emergency, and spending 

 their time diving for food or resting asleep on it just as they would 

 on the sea itself. 



Nidification. — The Scaup is one of the most northernly breeding 

 of ducks, having been observed breeding, as already noted, at least 

 as far north as lat. 70 '. As to its breeding within Indian limits, 

 this, in spite of Hume's young bird being caught in Kashmir, is 

 most unlikely ever to be found to be the case. 



The description of the nest, as given by various writers, differs 

 greatly : one says it is a scanty affair of grasses and weeds, etc., 

 without any down in it at all — a rare thing this with ducks' nests ; 

 whilst others say that the nest, though of few materials and very 

 roughly formed, is yet well lined with down and feathers, not only 

 enough to form the lining itself, but sufficient to make a bed in 

 which the eggs lie quite covered, 



Its position also seems to vary very much. As a rule, it is placed 

 close to water in a depression under cover of some sort, or else in 

 amongst fairly dense vegetation ; at other times — this, it appears, 

 but rarely — in a hole in the ground, and sometimes in the open 

 amongst stones, where there is no cover. In the latter case, no 

 doubt, it is in the bleaker parts, where vegetation close to water is 

 scant, and where, also, there is not much to interfere with the 

 birds' breeding arrangements. According to Dresser : — 



Not unfrequeutly several females deposit their eggs in the same 

 nest; and Dr. Kriiper states that in Iceland be once found twenty- 

 two eggs in one nest. The eggs are deposited from the early part of 

 June to the middle of July, and when the female commences to 

 incubate she sits very close, not leaving the nest until the intruder 

 is close to it. I possess a nest and seven eggs of this duck, taken 

 by Mr. Meves, in Oland, on the 5th July, 1)^71. This nest consists 

 only of grass, without any down as lining, and the eggs are uniform 

 greyish stone-buff iu colour, and vary in size from 2'45 X 1'67 to 

 2'5 X 1'77 inches." 



