OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 395 



Family ANATID^. Genus FULIGULA. 



Subfamily 



SCAUP. 



FULIGULA MAEILA (Linnasus). 



Anas marila, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 196 (1766). 



Fuligula marila (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 116 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 

 565, pi. 436 (1878) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 579 (1885) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. 

 ed. 4, iv. p. 423 (1885); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xv. (1890); Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 169 (1894) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. 

 p. 356 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 46, pi. 14 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 16 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Scaup is a common 

 winter visitor to our Islands, confined to the coasts and estuaries, where it is 

 widely distributed. It is least common in the Hebrides, and rare on the south 

 coasts of Ireland. It is occasionally seen in summer in the Shetlands and other 

 parts of Scotland. The very circumstantial account of this species breeding on 

 Loch Leven, by Mr. A. C. Stark, published in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Physical Society of Edinburgh (vii. p. 203), and quoted by Mr. Saunders in his 

 Manual of British Birds (although afterwards corrected in his appendix), turns 

 out to be a myth, there being no doubt whatever that the Tufted Duck had been 

 confused with and mistaken for it ! Foreign : Northern Palasarctic and Nearctic 

 regions, more southerly in winter ; parts of Oriental region in winter. The 

 Scaup breeds in the Faroes, and still more commonly in Iceland. It also does 

 so throughout the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific as far north as lat. 70, and at high elevations on the mountains of South 

 Scandinavia. In America it breeds as far north as 70 from east to west, but not 

 lower than the Hudson Bay Territory. The European birds winter on the coasts 

 of the Baltic, and those of the southern German Ocean not so commonly on the 

 Spanish coasts and the basin of the Mediterranean, but becoming more frequent 

 in the Black Sea and on the south coasts of the Caspian. In North-east Africa 

 it has been met with as low as Abbyssinia. The Asiatic birds appear to winter 

 in Persia, North-western India, the Lake Baikal district, China, Formosa, and 

 Japan. The American birds winter on the great lakes and rivers of the interior 

 as well as on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, down to 

 Mexico and Central America. 



