Descriptive List 75 



Range. — North America, breeding from northern United States nortliward, wintering from 

 New Jersey to Panama. 



Range in North Carolina. — ^Coastal region in winter; occasional!}' inland. 



This is the common "Blackhead" or "Bluebill" of our fresh-water sounds, estu- 

 aries, and coastwise creeks, and is well known to the sportsmen and market-gunners 

 of most of the Carolina coast-country. It also freciuents in limited numbers the 

 fresh-water lakes and rivers of the interior. H. H. Brimley reports it as a regular, 

 though never common, winter visitor on Lake Ellis, and specimens were taken by 

 him at Raleigh, March 10, 1891, and again January 2, 1895. Cairns regarded it 

 as a transient in Buncombe County. 



This is by far the most abundant species in winter on the Florida waters, and 

 quickly learns a territory wherein protection is afforded it. Thus at Palm Beach, 

 situated in Lake Worth, where the Audubon law has made it illegal to kill these 

 birds, Pearson in 1909 found them so tame that by throwing fragments of shell 

 into the water the birds were easily persuaded to swim in close to the sea-wall in 

 quest of the supposed food. On such occasions they did not hesitate to approach 

 within ten or fifteen feet. Similar treatment would make them just as tame in 

 North Carolina. 



The Little Scaup comes well to decoys, and many are thus killed. By scattering 

 grain in the water at a place where they have been observed to come and feed, they 

 can soon be induced to acciuire such a preference for the locality that the flocks will 

 return again and again after being fired upon. They are birds that possess a 

 strong curiosity and, in some places, like the antelope, it is Baid they are tolled to 

 their destruction by simply displaying a small red flag and judiciously waving it 

 to attract their attention. 



On our coastal waters probably more Little Blackheads are killed over decoys 

 than all other species combined. In the early part of the season vast numbers are 

 slaughtered on the lower reaches of Currituck Sound, and in November of 1909 we 

 know of one pair of market-gunners shooting four hundred in a single day, by an 

 expenditure of about eleven hundred shot-cartridges. Not very shy, drawing to 

 almost any kind of a deco.y, and rather imsuspicious, this little duck is the joy of 

 the shooter from a battery or blind who is killing them for market. 



Bearing on the possible breeding of the Little Blackhead in this State, the follow- 

 ing notes are of interest: 



In May, 1909, a party was bass-fishing in South River, Carteret County. 

 While casting along the edge of the marsh a bird was seen to slide into the water 

 just ahead of the l:ioat. It instantly dived, and was killed with a paddle as it rose. 

 It proved to be a female Lesser Scaup, with the breast worn so bare as to indicate 

 an incubating bird. (Reported by Mr. Wilham Dunn of New Bern.) 



A pair of this species was seen on Lake EUis in June, 1906, by H. H. Brimley. 



Bruncr and Feild observed a pair on Lake Kawana, in Avery County, in late 

 June, 1911. 



In Forest and Stream for August 6, 1910, page 211, Jasper White of Waterlily, 

 N. C, writes: "On July 13, 1910, a flock of seven young Blackheads — small sized 

 Scaup — was seen. They were very tame and allowed me to get within twenty yards 



