[160] BIRDS OF OREGON 



of the two scaups, or blue bills, as it is found wherever open water occurs. 

 It usually keeps away from the shore in much the same manner as the 

 Canvas-back. Bendire (1877) reported it from Camp Harney as an abund- 

 ant migrant and as a possible breeder "in upper Sylvies Valley in the Blue 

 Mountains, where I noticed several specimens June 8, 1876." It is not 

 mentioned by the earlier naturalists who may have confused it with the 

 Greater Scaup. 



Throughout the winter it is found on any available open water in 

 Klamath (Link River and Upper Klamath Lake), Deschutes (Deschutes 

 River), Harney, and Malheur (Snake River) Counties and may be ex- 

 pected on any considerable body of open water. Our earliest date is 

 September 2.5 (Harney County); our latest when numbers were seen, May 

 ii (Klamath County). In western Oregon, it may be found anytime from 

 October to April. It is a common winter resident of the coastal bays, 

 such as the mouth of the Columbia River, and Tillamook, Siletz, Yaquina, 

 and Coos Bays, and of many smaller bodies of water. It is common on 

 the Columbia River also, at least from Portland westward, and on Tah- 

 kenitch, Siltcoos, Devils, and many other lakes along the coast. Occa- 

 sionally great rafts containing many Lesser Scaups and a scattering of 

 other ducks are observed over favorite feeding grounds on Tillamook and 

 other bays. 



Stragglers remain through the summer, particularly in Klamath and 

 Harney Counties, but so far as we know these are nonbreeding birds. 

 There is one summer record for Portland (August 10), when Jewett saw 

 a few birds on the Eastmoreland Golf Course on Reed College Lake, a 

 small pond that is a regular resort for waterfowl. 



This species, in common with other diving ducks, feeds in deeper water 

 than do the river ducks, such as Mallards and Pintails. Eleven Lesser 

 Scaup stomachs from Klamath Falls have been examined by the Biological 

 Survey. The vegetable food taken in this locality is much the same as that 

 eaten by other species of ducks. It consists of seeds and vegetative parts 

 of such plants as pondweeds (^Po tamo get on), sedges (^Scirpus^), water milfoil 

 (Myriophyllum), and Hippuris. Four stomachs were filled with vegetable 

 matter as above, while seven contained animal material almost entirely 

 save for fragments of vegetable matter being filled with shells of mol- 

 lusks, badly broken up, among which were individuals of Fluminicola 

 Nuftaliana, a Planorbis, and a species otLymnaea. This is a greater amount 

 of animal matter than has been taken by any species of ducks so far dis- 

 cussed for this locality. Two taken at Netarts likewise had partaken 

 liberally of mollusks and a mass of ground-up vegetable matter. Lesser 

 Scaups on the coast frequently become so strongly flavored as to become 

 inedible, probably due to their habit of feeding heavily on the abundant 

 small mollusks of that area. 



