242 ANATID-E. 



or oozy shores, and are numerous throughout the winter 

 months on the coasts of Hampshire and Dorsetshire, where, 

 in company with Tufted Ducks, Golden Eyes, and other 

 species, they are pursued by wihl-fowl-shooters in their gun- 

 punts, and also occasionally caught by fishermen in upright 

 nets fixed in curving lines, on perpendicular stakes in shal- 

 low bays. The Scaup Duck, however, feeding on small fish, 

 mollusca, aquatic insects, and marine plants, is by no means 

 in request for the table, as its flesh is generally coarse, dark 

 in colour and fishy in flavour. The greater part of its food 

 is obtained by diving, at which it is very expert, but like 

 most of the short-winged diving-ducks it gets upon wing from 

 the surface of the water but slowly, prefers rising against 

 the wind, and flies at a moderate pace. What it wants, 

 however, in speed, it appears to make up by its caution, and 

 it is considered a difficult bird to approach. Its name of 

 Scaup Duck, is, according to Willughby, derived from the 

 bird feeding among broken shells, Avhich are called scaup ; 

 but the name, is, perhaps, only a modification of our word 

 scoop, from the manner in which the bird uses its broad beak, 

 ploughing or scooping along the soft upper surface of mud 

 and ooze in search of food ; as the Shoveler Duck, using its 

 beak in the same manner, is, in some countries, called the 

 Scopper-bill. 



Colonel Montagu, who kept both sexes of this species alive 

 in confinement many years, observed " that they associated 

 together apart from all other ducks, made the same grunting 

 noise, and both had the same singular toss of the head, at- 

 tended with an opening of the bill, which, in the spring, is 

 continued for a considerable time while swimming and sport- 

 ing on the water. This singular gesture would be sufficient 

 to identify the species were all other distinctions wanting. 

 In the case of one female Avhich died, Montagu mentions that 

 the cause of death appeared to be in the lungs, and in the 



