SPECIES 20. ANAS MARILA. 



SCAUP DUCK. 

 [Plate LXIX. Fig. 3.J 



Le petit Morillon rayt, BRISS. vi, p. 416. 26. A.ArcL Zool. JVo. 

 498. LATH. %n. in, p. 500. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 2668. 



THIS Duck is better known among us by the name of the 

 Blue Bill. It is an excellent diver; and according to Willough- 

 by feeds on a certain small kind of shell fish called scaup, 

 whence it has derived its name. It is common both to our fresh 

 water rivers and seashores in winter. Those that frequent the 

 latter are generally much the fattest, on account of the greater 

 abundance of food along the coast. It is sometimes abundant in 

 the Delaware, particularly in those places where small snails, 

 its favorite shell fish abound; feeding also, like most of its tribe, 

 by moonlight. They generally leave us in April, though I 

 have met with individuals of this species so late as the middle 

 of May, among the salt marshes of New Jersey. Their flesh is 

 not of the most delicate kind, yet some persons esteem it. 

 That of the young birds is generally the tenderest and most 

 palatable. 



The length of the Blue Bill is nineteen inches, extent twen- 

 ty-nine inches: bill broad, generally of a light blue, sometimes 

 of a dusky lead colour; irides reddish; head tumid, covered 

 with plumage of a dark glossy green, extending half way down 

 the neck; rest of the neck and breast black, spreading round to 

 the back; back and scapulars white, thickly crossed with wav- 

 ing lines of black; lesser coverts dusky, powdered with veins 

 of whitish, primaries and tertials brownish black; secondaries 

 white, tipt with black, forming the speculum; rump and tail co- 

 verts black; tail short, rounded, and of a dusky brown; belly 

 white, crossed near the vent with waving lines of ash ; vent black ; 

 lcS and feet dark slate. 



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