592 ATHYIA MARILA. 
close by were the owners of it. He refrained from returning to it the same 
day, in consideration of Mr. Kinnear’s absence, knowing how much the latter 
would like to see it and the bird belonging to it. That gentleman continues 
his journal thus :— 
“11 June.—A most beautiful day. We went over to , and on the 
gamekeeper’s joining us we went straight to the loch, and put off in the boat 
for the island on which the Duck’s nest had been found on Saturday. Quietly 
approaching the island, we landed and slipped forward. Mr. Bahr with his 
camera, ready to take a snap-shot at the bird as she left it.. When we were 
quite close to the nest she went off, and he got a photograph of her as she 
flew. Watching her with our glasses, we were surprised to see she had no 
white patch above her bill, and that she was much darker than a female 
Scaup. She flew a short distance and then alighted on the water alongside 
of a male Tufted Duck, and after examining her for some time we all came 
to the conclusion that she was nothing but a Tufted Duck. .... All this 
time we saw a male Scaup on the west side ef the loch, and leaving Mr. Bahr 
photographing on the Gulls’ island, the gamekeeper and I rowed to some of 
the other islands, and searched them carefully. On the first two we found 
nothing, and on the third there was only a Shoveler’s nest we had found 
before. Coming to the fourth, which was only about twenty feet long and 
ten wide, and covered with tussocks of grass, we landed and began a careful 
search, as it appeared to be a very likely place. We had hardly got ashore 
before a Duck flew off and I could clearly see that this time we had indeed 
found a female Scaup. She alighted on the water about thirty yards from us, 
and we had a splendid view of her with our glasses, seeing plainly that she - 
was much browner than a female Tufted Duck. The gamekeeper at first 
seemed to be rather doubtful about her, but after again carefully looking with 
his glass, he acknowledged it was all right. The nest was between two 
tussocks of grass and contained nine eggs with a quantity of down. Leaving 
the nest as it was, we returned to Mr. Bahr, and after he had taken some more 
photographs of the Gulls and of the Tufted Duck’s nest on the neighbouring 
island, we went back to the Scaup island. As the boat grounded the Duck 
flew off, and we again hada clear view of her. The eggs were this time 
covered with the down, so the bird must have been watching our approach 
and getting prepared. ‘There were no other nests on the island, but alongside 
of the Scaup’s the remains of an old one—probably last year’s.” 
Mr. Kinnear was so good as to send me four of the eggs from this nest, 
together with the down that it contained. I must confess to having had 
considerable misgivings on seeing the former, as they so closely resembled 
Tufted Ducks’ both in size and shape; but a careful examination of the latter, 
and comparison of it with the down of the Tufted Duck, kindly made for me 
by Dr. Gadow, persuaded me that it was not Tufted Duck’s, while its similarity 
to the down of the Scaup-Duck taken by Mr. Heatley Noble from a nest in 
Sutherland (Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist. 1899, p. 215), for a portion of which I am 
indebted to Mr. Harvie-Brown, is very evident. Contrary to what one would 
expect, the down of the Scaup-Duck is much darker—almost black—than that 
of the Tufted Duck, which is distinctly brown. ] 
