12 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



have had opportunities of watching them unperceived, busy 

 feeding at all hours, and never asleep as night-feeding Ducks 

 so constantly are between n a.m. and 3 p.m. ; and, secondly, 

 because I have so rarely killed them when flight-shooting. 

 When settled on some comfortable, rush-embosomed, weed- 

 interwoven broad, I am pretty certain that they do not change 

 their quarters at nightfall, as when encamped near any of their 

 chosen day haunts I have heard their harsh, familiar call at in- 

 tervals throughout the midnight hours ; but, of course, in the 

 less common case, when they affect bare-shored lakes or rivers 

 by day (and some few do do this), they must needs go elsewhere 

 to feed during the night, and in such situations I have once or 

 twice seen them at mid-day snoozing at the water's edge. 



"Their 'quack,' or note, is peculiar, though something like 

 that of the Pochard, a harsh kirr, kirr, kirr, with which one 

 soon becomes acquainted, as they invariably utter it staccato 

 as they bustle up from the rushes, often within a few yards of 

 the boat." 



Nest. Composed of dry flags and rushes, and lined with thick 

 brownish down and a few white feathers (Lilford). 



Eggs. From nine to fourteen in number, but the usual 

 number is ten. Colour creamy-brown. Axis, 2-0-2-2 inches ; 

 diam., i^S-^SS- 



THE SCAUP DUCKS. GENUS FULIGULA. 



Fuligula^ Steph. Gen. Zool. xii. pt. 2, p. 187 (1824). 



Type, F.fu/igula(L.). 



The genus Fuligufa is very similar to Nyroca, and only differs 

 in the shape of the bill, which, as Count Salvadori points out, 

 is rather broader and shorter, and widens out near the end, so 

 that it is wider at the tip than at the base ; it is also more 

 rounded at the end. The males in the genus Fuligula have 

 the head black, not chestnut. 



I. THE TUFTED SCAUP DUCK. FULIGULA FULIGULA, 



Anas fuligula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 207 (1766). 



