2o6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Length 18.5-20 inches; extent 32-35; wing 8.75-9; tail 2.8-3; tarsus 

 1. 4-1. 5; middle toe and claw 2.6; bill, culmen 1.65-2, width i; female, 

 length 17-17. 5; wing 8-8.25; tarsus 1.36; bill 1.65. 



The Scaup, Big bluebill, Broadbill, or Blackhead is an abundant 

 transient visitant along the coast and on the larger inland waters. It is 

 one of the common winter ducks on Long Island and is fairly common 

 in winter on the lakes. It usually passes northward from the 1 5th of April 

 to the ist of May and returns from the ist to the 20th of October. On the 

 inland waters its numbers diminish considerably after the 20th of November. 

 It is most abundant about the ist of November and the loth of April. 

 The principal breeding range of this duck is from North Dakota and British 

 Columbia north to Fort Churchill and Kotzebue sound. In eastern North 

 America its winter home is chiefly from Massachusetts to North Carolina 

 and from the Great Lakes to Texas. The Scaup is holarctic in range, 

 although a few years ago the American bird was considered subspecifically 

 distinct. 



Ducks of this species utter a soft purring whistle when excited or 

 calling to their mates, and rarely the discordant note described by Seebohm 

 as resembling the word scaup screamed out in an exceptionally harsh, 

 coarse voice. On two or three occasions I have heard a flock of scaups 

 giving utterance to these notes and the effect was the loudest and most 

 discordant chorus of bird notes to which I ever listened, coming as it did 

 from scores of voices over the silent water. 



Marila afiinis (Eyton) 



(Aythya affinis on plate) 



Lesser Scaup Duck 



Plate 17 



Fuligula affinis Eyton. Monogr. Anat. 1838. p. 157 

 Fuligula minor DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 324 

 Aythya affinis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 149 



afjl'nis, Lat., alUed, related, i.e. to M . in a r i 1 a 



Description. Male: Markings similar to the Greater scaup's, but the 

 wavy bars on the flanks heavier and more numerous, the gloss of the head 



