TUFTED DUCK, 211 



and purer than usual, has the feathers of the head and 

 neck brownish black, with a decided tinge of green on 

 the sides of the head, the dark feathers terminating at 

 the base of the throat in a perfect ring, as contrasted 

 with the brown feathers of the back and breast, the 

 stomach and vent pure white." 



Except in very severe weather, the scaups spend the 

 day far out at sea, coming in at evening to the shallows 

 to feed on the crustaceans and mollusks which so abound 

 on the " mussel scaups " (whence their name) on some 

 parts of our coast; in hard weather they make their 

 appearance in shore in considerable numbers, but even 

 then adult birds are the exception. In Miss Grurney's 

 notes (extracts from which will be found in the " Trans. 

 Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc.," ii., p. 20) under date 

 of February 4th, 1830, occurs the following : " Three 

 starved scaup ducks brought to us at Northrepps Cot- 

 tage. Out of 80 ducks brought to Northrepps Hall 

 about this date, 70 were scaups." 



Mr. Dowell states that in hard weather these birds 

 are not only numerous but tame, so that great numbers 

 are sometimes killed by the gunners. He says " Overton 

 once killed 120 in one day in a hard frost, at Salthouse, 

 chasing them up and down in a wake in the ice." Except 

 under such circumstances, this species, unlike the 

 scoter, is not particularly abundant along our coast ; 

 and, when they do appear, it is generally in small 

 parties. The fresh water of the broads seems to possess 

 little attraction for scaups, and when met with inland, 

 which occasionally happens, their stay is of short dura- 

 tion. Several adult scaups occurred in the winter of 

 1870. 



FULIGULA CBJSTATA (Leach). 

 TUFTED DUCK. 



Mr. Stevenson writes of this species in his note book 

 as follows : "A very common species in autumn, winter, 

 and spring, and, though belonging to the oceanic group, 

 2D2 



