252 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



were collected in an effort to ascertain the relation of the Greater 

 Scaup to the oyster industry, a wider distribution of stomachs might 

 alter to some extent the percentages established above. From reports 

 of European writers it appears that the Scaups of the Old World have 

 the same feeding habits as those of the American species. Gravel is 

 taken freely and averages about 18 per cent of the total stomach con- 

 tent. 



With the first frosts of early autumn, the birds which have bred 

 further south and have hatched earlier begin to move. The main flight 

 arrives, however, just ahead of the wintry storms, driven out by the ice 

 and snow; the birds of this second flight are among the latest migrants. 

 In the spring they follow the retreat of winter, and March and April 

 are the months of greatest movement. The winter range of this species 

 is quite extensive and more northerly than that of the Lesser Scaup. 

 They are found wintering on the Atlantic coast from Maine south and 

 on the Pacific coast from the Aleutian Islands to southern California. 

 Some spend the winter on the Great Lakes. Cahn (1912) relates that 

 these ducks often perish on account of the freezing of the lakes in which 

 they have settled. On Cayuga Lake he once came across a flock of some 

 400 which were so weakened that it was almost impossible for them to 

 rise clear of the ice. Two peculiar incidents came to his attention: "One 

 specimen was found, while still alive, in which over half the webbing of 

 both feet had been frozen and dropped off. Another was found frozen 

 in a cake of ice, nothing but the head and about half the neck protrud- 

 ing from the mass. The duck, still alive, was chopped out, when it was 

 found that the ice had in some way frozen over the duck, leaving water 

 next to the body. This was undoubtedly kept from freezing by the action 

 of the legs and the body heat. The bird was uninjured, and after being 

 fed, seemed little the worse for its experience." 



Lesser Scaup Duck 



Nyroca affinis 

 (ni-r6-ka, a-ffn-is) 



Colour Plates Nos. 19 and 17. Downy Young No. 34. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Nyroca, Latinized form of the Russian word Nirok or Nyrok, meaning a diving 

 duck; affinis, Latin, meaning allied. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Bluebill; little bluebill. IN LOCAL USE: Black duck; black- 

 head; blackjack; blackneck; blue-billed shoveler; booby; broadbill; bullhead; bull- 

 neck; butterball; canvasback; cottontail bluebill; creek blackhead; creek broadbill; 

 dos gris (greyback, sometimes corrupted to dogs); fall duck; flock duck; fresh- 

 water broadbill; goshen broadbill; greenhead broadbill; greyback; howden; lake 

 duck; little bay bluebill; little blackhead; little blackhead duck; little broadbill; 



