342 ANATIDJE. 



flat, muddy, or oozy shores, and are numerous throughout 

 the winter months on the coasts of Hampshire and Dorset- 

 shire, where, in company with Tufted Ducks, Golden 

 Eyes, and other species, they are pursued by wild-fowl- 

 shooters in their gun-punts, and also occasionally caught 

 by fishermen in upright nets fixed in curving lines, on 

 perpendicular stakes in shallow bays. The Scaup Duck, 

 however, feeding on small fish, mollusca, aquatic insects, 

 and marine plants, is by no means in request for the table, 

 as its flesh is generally coarse, dark in colour and fishy in 

 flavour. The greater part of its food is obtained by diving, 

 at which it is very expert, but like most of the short- 

 winged diving-ducks it gets upon wing from the surface 

 of the water but slowly, prefers rising against the wind, 

 and flies at a moderate pace. What it wants, however, 

 in speed, it appears to make up in caution, and it is con- 

 sidered a difficult bird to approach. Its name of Scaup 

 Duck, is, according to Willughby, derived from the bird 

 feeding among broken shells, which are called scaup. 

 Beds of oysters and muscles are in the north called Oyster 

 scawp, and muscle scawp, and from feeding on these shell 

 covered banks, the bird has obtained the name of Scaup 

 Duck. 



Colonel Montagu, who kept both sexes of this species 

 alive in confinement many years, observed "that they as- 

 sociated together apart from all other Ducks, made the 

 same grunting noise, and both had the same singular toss 

 of the head, attended with an opening of the bill, which, 

 in the spring, is continued for a considerable time while 

 swimming and sporting on the water. This singular ges- 

 ture would be sufficient to identify the species were all 

 other distinctions wanting. In the case of one female 

 which died, Montagu mentions that the cause of death 



