THE SCAUP POCHARD. 343 



The quils and the tail feathers, which are fourteen in number, 

 are dusky. The female has the head, neck, and breast, 

 brown, marked with some white on the throat and near the 

 eyes. The young resemble the female, and do not receive 

 the black till the third year. The nests are understood to 

 be in the northern marshes, placed among reeds ; the eggs to 

 be from ten to thirteen in number, of a dull greenish white. 

 The birds do not arrive on our shores very early in the 

 autumn, and seem to belong to an eastern or north-eastern 

 migration. They appear in the estuaries of the fen rivers, 

 and a little inland rather than on the sea coasts. They are 

 very expert divers, and for that reason supposed to be inha- 

 bitants of the northern lakes rather than the marshes. 



THE SCAUP POCHARD (Fuligula mania). 



Like the former, this species is a winter visitant, and 

 comes indiscriminately to the shores, and the fresh waters near 

 the sea, though on the estuaries of the larger rivers rather than 

 on the banks of lakes. Its bill is broad and rounded at the 

 tip, and well adapted for searching in the ooze and sludge for 

 those substances on which it feeds ; and, from that form of 

 the bill, it is sometimes called the spoonbill duck. 



Length about eighteen inches, weight rather more than a 

 pound and a half, bill bluish, feet leaden grey, wing spots 

 white, and the irides golden yellow. Head and neck black, 

 with green reflections j upper part of the back, rump, vent, 

 and breast, plain black ; lower part of the back, wing coverts, 

 and sides, variegated with black and white ; quills dusky, 

 secondaries white, forming the wing spot, but with black 

 tips ; tail dusky, consisting of sixteen feathers, wedge-shaped 

 at the point. The female is more inclining to brown in 

 the plumage than the male. Though in general found near 

 the sea, and supporting themselves chiefly by diving, these 



