'52 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



and toes slate-blue; irides golden-yellow. Weight i-lb. 10-02. to i-lb. 14-02.* 

 The female is dark brown above, greyish brown underneath where the males 

 shew white. The yonng birds have white feathers about the base of the bill, these 

 also are occasionally found in adult birds. 



Family- AN A TIDAL. 



SCAUP-DUCK. 



Fuligiila marila, LlNN. 



THE Scaup is one of the commonest Ducks on the east coast during winter, 

 where it is partial to the estuaries of rivers, and wide extending mud flats, 

 and sandy shores, broken with warp deposits and clay beds. They arrive late in 

 autumn, at the end of October or early in November, and are usually the last of 

 the Ducks to leave our shores in the spring, flocks remaining off the coast till 

 late into May, and in some cases throughout the sximmer. In 1867 an adult male 

 and female frequented the debouchure of one of the Huinber creeks in Great Cotes 

 throughout the summer. 



On their first arrival in the autumn, Scaup keep together in mixed flocks of 

 old and young of both sexes, but later in the season, and to the end of March, I 

 have, as a rule, met with the adults in pairs, males and females, in about equal 

 proportion ; but there is no general law as to the composition of the flocks. In 

 the winter of 1875-76, young birds of the year, males and females, were very 

 common on the river, adults almost altogether absent. Once on March 8th, I 

 examined through the glass a large flock of entirely adult males, and on the 26th 

 of the same month a large flock of adult male and female swimming in pairs. 



* The most accurate of recent authorities on the weight, and colour of the soft parts, of wild-fowl, is Sir 

 R. Payne-Gallwey, ("Letters to Young Shooters"). The descriptions are taken from fresh killed specimens, anil 

 can be thoroughly relied on. 



