250 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



"The Scaup Duck is a bold, strong swimmer, making the best of 

 speed even in rough weather: it is a hardy sea duck, unexcelled in its 

 powers of swimming and diving. It is not particularly shy and can 

 usually be approached with a little caution; but it must be hard hit to 

 be secured, as it is tough, has a thick coat of feathers, and is such a 

 powerful swimmer and diver that it is useless to pursue a wounded bird 

 unless it is shot over at once. It dives quickly and swims rapidly away 

 under water with its wings tightly closed, as many of the best divers do. 

 I have seen Scaup Ducks, which I had dropped as if killed, sit up and 

 shake themselves, dive before I could shoot them over, and never show 

 themselves again; if the sea is at all rough, they can easily escape with- 

 out showing enough to be seen" (Bent, 1923). When feeding it seems 

 to dive with extreme regularity for definite periods; the dives vary in 

 duration from 25 to 29 seconds and the period between dives from 1 1 to 

 19 seconds. When these ducks are resting on the sea it may be observed 

 that they often sit in one unbroken line parallel to the coast, and when 

 rising the first bird at one end takes wing and is followed in order right 

 across the flock. 



In flight these birds proceed at a rapid pace in somewhat compact 

 formation and the sound produced by their wings is loud and rustling. 

 On their migrations during the day they often fly at a great height but 

 when moving about their feeding grounds they do not fly much more 

 than 30 feet above the water. As they rise from the water the neck is 

 straightened out and the birds run along the surface with considerable 

 splashings for several yards, the distance covered before clearing depend- 

 ing on the amount of head wind, for they rise more quickly when the 

 wind is strong. They decoy readily, as they are trusting birds, and 

 being swift fliers they provide excellent sport for the gunner. Depend- 

 ing upon how they have been feeding in the recent past, they are choice 

 or indifferent table birds, not usually as good as their smaller relatives 

 but generally better than the Golden-eyes. 



The courtship of these Scaups is described by Millais (1913), who 

 says: "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 or 60. If the female responds to this she also lifts 

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

 the words tuc-tuc-turra-tuc. If alarmed, or pretending to be so, she 

 swims away quickly with powerful strokes, uttering her quacking cry, 

 scaar-scaar. When paired, the female often comes up to the male and 

 bows her head gently several times. The actual show of the male is a 

 quick throw up of the head and neck, which is greatly swollen with air 

 as it extends. At the summit of extension, the bird utters a gentle cry 

 like the words pa-whoo, only uttered once. As he makes this show, the 

 female sometimes swims round him, lowering the head and dipping the 

 bill in the surface of the water and making a gentle call, chup-chup, or 

 chup-chup-cherr-err .... The male also utters a very low whistle. Ex- 

 cept the harsh loud cry of the female, all these calls of pairing Scaup are 



