SCAUP 71, 
to some being more tired than others.’ They are compact and 
thick-set birds, and move themselves in the air with short and 
quickly-repeated strokes of the wings. Selby says that the 
weight of their body, and the shape of their wings, compel 
them always to rise against the wind. 
They feed on shell-fish, for which they dive to a depth of 
ten or twelve feet, and in search of, turn up the mud with 
their beak, from whence, possibly, as has been suggested by 
Yarrell, its name—as if scoop. The other articles of its diet 
are small fish, mollusca, water-insects, and plants. 
The note is a hoarse sound, and while uttering it, the birds, 
in the spring-time, while playing their pranks, and sporting 
on the water, have a habit of tossing the head, and opening 
the bill. 
They appear not to lay before the month of May. 
The Scaup builds among the brushwood or other vegetation 
that is found in swampy grounds or by lakes, or in stony 
places near these. Very little nest is formed, the materials, 
such as they are, being dry grasses, stalks, and leaves, but 
the eggs are well covered with down. 
These are, it is said, from five or six to eight or ten in 
number, of a dull yellowish brown colour. 
The bird begins to lay in May. 
Male; weight, about thirty-five ounces; length, one foot 
eight inches to one foot nine; bill, clear pale bluish lead- 
colour, the tooth curved and biack; about the base it is 
narrower, and dilated towards the tip; iris, light golden yellow. 
Head on the sides, crown, and neck, dark rich velvet greenish 
black: the plumage on these parts is full, and of a silky 
texture. Nape, deep velvet black; chin and throat, dark velvet 
black, glossed with green; breast above, black, below white, 
with zigzag pencillings on the sides and flanks, and a yellowish 
tinge. Back on the upper part, pale greyish white, finely 
marked with numerous transverse zigzag lines of black, the 
intervals rather wider, and the markings darker on the lower 
part. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest, but the 
second nearly of the same length. They expand to the width 
of two feet eight inches or more; greater wing coverts, dark 
purple grey, pencilled with black; lesser wing coverts, black, 
with transverse zigzag white lines. Primaries, deep dusky 
black, the inner webs lightest, the ends black; secondaries, 
black at the tips, the remainder, including the speculum, 
