344 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



receive the charge. Scaup are also among 

 the toughest of birds and the most tenacious 

 of life. At least half the cripples usually 

 escape, and any that are captured alive it 

 is all but impossible to kill. I have seen, 

 when the bag was emptied on to the 

 kitchen floor, a couple of Scaups, which 

 had appeared as dead as door-nails, return 

 to life and flutter vigorously round the 

 room. Even when killed, however, they 

 are of no value, being the strongest, 

 nastiest, and most utterly uneatable Ducks 

 I ever tried." 



Regarding the nesting of the Scaup 

 Duck, I must again quote from Seebohm's 

 charming work. He writes : " The 

 Scaup generally selects some sloping bank, 

 not far from water, but high enough from 

 the edge to be secure from floods, on 

 which to build her nest. It is always well 

 concealed, and seldom to be found except 

 by accidentally frightening off the sitting 

 Duck. Sometimes it is placed under the 

 cover of a willow or a juniper bush, but 

 more often in the open, carefully hidden 

 in some hole in the rough ground, sur- 

 rounded by cranberries or bilberries 

 struggling amidst tufts of sedge or cotton- 

 grass. The hole is lined with dry broken 

 sedge, and as the eggs are laid an accu- 



