248 ANATID-E. 



Scaup Duck is well known in the United States, and the 

 accounts of the American ornithologists, Messrs. Wilson, 

 Audubon, and Nuttall, appear to refer to the species which 

 immediately precedes the present subject in this work. Sir 

 William Jardine, however, in his edition of Wilson's Ame- 

 rican Ornithology, vol. iii. page 106, in a note appended to 

 the history of the Scaup, makes the following remark :— " Com- 

 mon also to both Continents, and in Britain a most abundant 

 sea-duck. Though generally to be found in the poultry-mar- 

 kets during winter, it is strong and ill-flavoured, or what is 

 called JisIiT/, and of little estimation for the table. In the 

 Northern Zoology, the American specimens are said to be 

 smaller, but no other distinctions could be perceived; a 

 single northern specimen which I possess, agrees nearly with 

 the dimensions given of the smaller kind, and I can see no 

 other important difference ; but there are also larger-sized 

 birds, known to the natives by the addition of keetchee to the 

 name, and I think it probable that two birds may be here 

 confused, which future observations will allow us to separate." 



Dr. Richardson's remarks on the Scaup Duck in the Fauna 

 Boreali-Americana, are as follows : — " Our specimens are 

 smaller than English ones killed in the winter, the head, bill, 

 wings, and legs, in particular, being proportionally smaller, 

 and the bill less high at the base. — A variety/, nearly corre- 

 sponding with the English one in size, is also found in the 

 fur-countries, Avhere it is distinguished by the epithet of 

 keetchee (bigger) : but an attentive examination of a num- 

 ber of specimens, disclosed no peculiarities which could cha- 

 racterise it as a distinct species, except its size. The imdu- 

 lated markings on the back and wings are darker, and less 

 extended than in the English specimens." Mr. Swainson adds 

 in a note at the bottom of the page, " one of these varieties 

 (if such they be) is common upon the lakes of Mexico." 



The late Mr. Vigors, who wrote the ornithological portion 

 of the volume published on the various subjects in Zoology 



