SCAUP DUCK. 345 



among the aquatic herbage, or the large stones, near the 

 edge of fresh water, making little or no nest, but a quantity 

 of down covering the eggs, which are from five to eight in 

 number : an egg brought from Iceland by Mr. Procter, and 

 figured in Mr. Hewitson's work, is of a uniform clay brown 

 colour, two inches and three-eighths in length, by one inch 

 and five-eighths in breadth. 



Mr. Charles Drosier, who gives, in the fourth volume of 

 the Naturalist, a brief sketch of a voyage across the North 

 and Baltic seas, says, that large flocks of Scaup Ducks 

 were seen streaming over the water, as the vessel entered 

 the gulf of Finland, in the month of August, and others 

 were seen on the shore. They were known to be com- 

 mon in Russia, Siberia, and southwards to Germany ; and 

 M. Temminck mentions that they are abundant in Holland. 

 In France, they are mostly confined to the coast, and the 

 Scaup Duck is included among the birds of Switzerland 

 and Italy. It is observed in Sicily during winter. 



This species is common in North America, from the fur- 

 countries to the southern states of the Union, depending on 

 the season of the year. 



In the adult male the bill is pale blue ; in form, narrowest 

 at the base, dilated considerably towards the point, being 

 nearly one third wider ; the nail curved and black ; the 

 irides yellow ; the head and the neck all round, as well as 

 the upper part of the breast and back, black ; the cheeks 

 and sides of the neck glossed with rich green ; the rest of 

 the back and the scapulars spotted and striped with 

 broadish black lines, on a ground of white, with consider- 

 able intervals between the lines ; the wing-coverts of much 

 darker grey than the back ; the wing-primaries brownish- 

 black ; the secondaries white, forming the speculum, but 

 tipped with black ; tertials as dark a grey as the smaller 



