FERRUGINOUS DUCK SCAUP DUCK. 385 



request, being considered rank and unpalatable, owing, doubtless, 

 to the difference of diet in the two districts. 



The Pochard has been killed in Orkney so late as the 28th of 

 June. 



THE FERRUGINOUS DUCK. 

 FULIGULA NYROCA. 



I KNOW of but one instance of the occurrence of this bird in any 

 part of Scotland, viz., a specimen which was shot near Musselburgh 

 in 1855, and exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Physical Society, 

 Edinburgh, on the 26th December, by Dr J. A. Smith, the Society's 

 Secretary, to whom I am indebted for a notice of the circumstance. 

 The following measurements of the specimen are taken from vol. 

 i., p. 52, of the published proceedings: "The bird, an adult male, 

 measured 16| inches from the point of the bill to the tip of the 

 tail; and 27 J inches in breadth from point to point of its extended 

 wings. The first primary is the longest, others gradually decreasing 

 in length. From flexure of wing to point of first primary measures 

 7 1 inches; inside of wings and axillaries white. Its weight was 

 saventeen ounces. The trachea (which was exhibited), 5J inches 

 long, is peculiar, the upper part being rather more than a quarter 

 of an inch in diameter, gradually expanding to half an inch, and 

 again contracting to less than a quarter of an inch towards the 

 lower part, where it terminates in a bony and membraneous 

 labyrinth about 1J inch in length. The oesophagus was about 

 7 1 inches in length; the stomach, a strong and muscular gizzard, 

 was filled with seeds of the oat mixed with small pieces of quartz 

 and gravel. The intestines, from pylorus to anus, were three feet 

 nine inches in length; two coeca, one 4f inches, the other 4 J inches 

 long, enter the gut about 2J inches from its lower extremity." 



THE SCAUP DUCK. 



FULIGULA M ARIL A. 



THIS duck is perhaps the least common among the ordinary sea- 

 ducks that frequent the western shores of Scotland. Being partial 

 to mud flats, it is found chiefly near estuaries, remaining for the 

 most part out at sea in the day time, where it dives like the scoters 



