272 THE DIVING DUCKS 



winter visitor, and as such almost entirely marine in its habits, haunt- 

 ing the estuaries of tidal rivers and low-lying, muddy coasts. In the 

 breeding season, however, it resorts to the neighbourhood of inland 

 lochs to nest, and in some parts of Iceland, especially the Myvatn 

 district, is extraordinarily plentiful. Not only scores, but literally 

 hundreds of nests are to be found within quite a limited area. The 

 Rev. H. H. Slater and Mr. T. Carter counted no fewer than 305 nests 

 on one small group of islands in Lake Myvatn on 13th July 1885, and 

 then only stopped counting from sheer weariness. In other parts of 

 the island it is also numerous, but is not found in such enormous 

 numbers as at Myvatn. In March most of the scaups arrive from the 

 North Sea, where they have spent the winter months, and gradually 

 spread over the country, not reaching the northern coasts till the 

 beginning of April, and working up the rivers to their breeding- 

 grounds, so that many of them do not reach their nesting-haunts till 

 the beginning of May. By this time they are already paired, but little 

 has hitherto been recorded as to their courtship. Montagu noticed 

 that captive birds kept apart from other ducks, and made a grunting 

 noise accompanied with a singular toss of the head, the bill being 

 opened at the same time. 1 This habit was continued for a con- 

 siderable time while swimming and sporting on the water in the 

 spring months, and in itself is sufficient to identify the species. 

 Saxby also describes it as half standing in the water, and thrusting 

 its head forward with the bill widely open sometimes, for a variation, 

 bending the head down towards the breast with a rapid jerking motion 

 (Birds of Shetland, p. 255). 



Mr. J. G. Millais has kindly allowed me to extract the following 

 description from his forthcoming monograph on the Diving Ducks : 

 " The male scaup, anxious to pair, approaches the female with head 

 and neck held up to their fullest extent, the bill being raised in the air 

 to an angle of 50 to 60. If the female responds to this, she also lifts 

 the neck stiffly, at the same time uttering a crooning sort of note like 



1 Faber compares it to the " murr" of the turtle-dove. 



