518 AN ATI D^,. 



Scaup ; for mussels, and indeed many other kinds of shell- 

 fish, as well as insects and marine plants, seem equally 

 acceptable to them. Selby records a single instance of 

 the Scaup having bred so far south as Sutherlandshire, a 

 female having been seen in the 'month of June, accom- 

 panied by a young one. I have myself seen a Scaup Duck 

 in Scotland during summer, but under circumstances 

 which did not lead me to suppose that it had remained 

 for the purpose of breeding. In August, 1861, I observed 



THE SCAUP DUCK. 



two birds swimming sociably on a small fresh- water loch in 

 the island of Islay, which, upon examination through a 

 telescope, appeared to me to be, one, a kind of Goose, 

 the other decidedly a Duck of some kind. On inquiry I 

 found that the former was a Bernicle Goose, which had 

 been caught in a neighbouring island in the previous 

 winter, and had been given to the laird's keeper, who 

 pinioned it and turned it out on the loch to shift for itself. 

 Of the Duck nothing was known, nor had it been observed 



