THE GOLDEN-EYED DUCKS. 19 



seen coming and going from their feeding-grounds. When 

 alarmed, they generally seek safety by diving, but if they find 

 themselves obliged to take wing, they get up from the water, 

 one after another, with a great splash, but once fairly launched 

 in the air, they appear to get away very quickly, though their 

 wings are obliged to vibrate at a great speed and with con- 

 siderable noise. They both swim and dive with perfect ease, 

 and obtain much of their food under water. 



" Although the Scaup, when cooked, is said to taste very 

 fishy, it does not appear to be much of a fish-eater. Shell-fish 

 are its favourite food, but it varies its diet with crustaceans, 

 the larvae of various insects, and with some vegetable matter. 

 In confinement Montagu found it remarkably tame, feeding 

 eagerly at once on soaked bread, and after a few days on 

 barley." 



Nest. According to Mr. Seebohm, "the Scaup generally 

 selects some sloping bank, not far from water, but high enough 

 from the edge to be secure from floods, on which to build her 

 nest. It is always well concealed, and seldom to be found ex- 

 cept by accidentally frightening off the sitting Duck. Some- 

 times it is placed under a willow or juniper bush, but more often 

 in the open, carefully hidden in some hole in the rough ground 

 surrounded by cranberries or bilberries struggling amidst tufts 

 of sedge or cotton-grass. The hole is lined with dry broken 

 sedge, and, as the eggs are laid, an accumulation of down is 

 formed, sufficient to keep them warm when the Duck leaves 

 them to feed." 



Eggs. From six to nine in number, of a pale greenish-grey 

 or stone-colour. Messrs. H. J. and C. E. Pearson once found 

 twelve eggs in a nest in Iceland. Axis, 2-55-2-65 inches; 

 diam., 1-7. 



Down. Larger than that of the Tufted Scaup, but of about 

 the same character. Dark chocolate-brown, with paler brown 

 filamentous tips, and a small star of dull white in the middle. 



THE GOLDEN-EYED DUCKS. GENUS CLANGULA. 

 Clangula, Leach, in Ross's Voy. Disc. App. p. xlviii. (1819). 



Type, C. dangula (L.). 

 The genus Clangula^ for which I adopt the well-known Eng- 



C 2 



