SCAUP DUCK. 227 



at no great distance from the sea. Is most numerous 

 in the waters of the Chesapeake ; and, with the con- 

 noisseurs in good eating, ranks next in excellence to 

 the canvass-back. Its usual weight is about a pound 

 and three quarters avoirdupois. 



The red-head leaves the bay and its tributary streams 

 in March, and is not seen until late in October. 



on the bottom of the windpipe, very much like that of 

 the canvass-back, but smaller ; over one of its concave 

 sides is spread an exceeding thin transparent skin, or 

 membrane. The intestines are of great width, and 

 measure six feet in length. 



277. ANAS JfARILA, LINN^EOS AND WILSON. SCAUP DUCK. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXIX. FIG. Ill EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THIS duck is better known among us by the name 

 of the blue bill. It is an excellent diver, and, according 

 to Willoughby, 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 sea shores 

 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 favourite 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 

 twenty-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 j rest of the 



