5 4 BIRD NAMES. No. 17.] 



according to Willoughby, is a term applied to broken shell-fish ; 

 and Yarrell, treating of British Birds, says : " Beds of oysters 

 and mussels are in the north called ' oyster-scaup ' and ' mussel- 

 scaup,' and from feeding on these shell-covered banks the bird 

 has obtained the name." 



It is impossible to separate clearly the names of this 

 from those of the following species, No. 18, the two being 

 enough alike to travel very commonly under one and the same 

 name. 



Along the coast from New Brunswick, until approaching 

 Long Island Sound, duckers do not usually remark a difference 

 between them ; and I had better state here, once for all, that the 

 following names, which are not specially remarked upon as ap- 

 plied to this, the greater scaup, alone, may be regarded as belong- 

 ing to both species. 



Known in Maine at Jonesport, Frenchman's Bay, Ash Point 

 (near Rockland), Portland, and Pine Point, and in Massachusetts 

 at Salem, Barnstable, Fairhaven, and Falmouth, as BLUE BILL.* 

 This is the popular appellation in the West also. I have met it 

 in common use on the Niagara and Illinois Rivers, at Chicago, 

 and about Lake St. Clair ; and Mr. J. P. Leach, of Rushville, 111., 

 writes me concerning this and No. 18 in his part of the country, 

 that they are " almost invariably known as ' blue-bills ;' the terms 

 ' broad-bill,' ' scaup,' ' black-head,' etc., rarely being used except 

 by men from the East." 



We hear " blue-bill " also (among other names) in New Jersey 

 at Pleasantville (Atlantic Co.) and Cape May City ; and infre- 

 quently used at Jacksonville, Fla. 



This, the larger scaup, is distinguished in the vicinity of 

 Detroit and Lake St. Clair, as LAKE BLUE-BILL, and this name 

 is recorded as " local " in the Revised List of Birds of Central 

 New York, 1879 (Rathbun, Fowler, and others). 



Again at Falmouth, Mass., and to native duckers at New- 

 port, R. I., WIDGEON (see our Widgeon of ornithologists, No. 8, 

 also Nos. 9, 12, 13, 31): in Boston markets BLUE-BILLED WIDG- 



* Given at Machias Port, Me., to Ruddy Duck, No. 31. 



