Canvas-back and Pochards 193 



rounded by open water about knee deep, and the nest was so well concealed in 

 the center of it as to be invisible from the outside." Another nest, also in a clump 

 of reeds and surrounded by water over knee deep, "was beautifully made of 

 dead reeds firmly interwoven, held in place by the growing reeds about it, and 

 sparingly lined with gray down." The eggs are similar to those of the Red -head 

 except that they are much darker. In winter the Canvas-back is found from 

 the Chesapeake Bay to the Greater Antilles, being especially abundant on the 

 bays and marshes of the Carolina coast, where it is procured in great numbers 

 for the northern markets. It is highly prized by epicures, although by some it is 

 regarded as no better or even inferior to the Red-head in this respect. Many 

 devices are resorted to to secure the birds, such as shooting from a blind, attract- 

 ing them within range by means of decoys of various kinds, a blinding light used 

 at night, and by nets set over their feeding grounds. The two last mentioned 

 are considered very unsportsmanlike and moreover are unlawful. 



The Pochard (A.ferina) of northern Europe and Siberia is even more closely 

 related to the Red-head than is the Canvas-back. Like the Red-head it has the 

 whole head and upper neck chestnut-rufous, but has the bill banded with dark 

 and pale bluish gray and the general color of the plumage more finely waved 

 with dusky lines. The female differs from the female Red-head in hardly more 

 than the color of the bill. This species nests mainly in the North, but quite a 

 number still linger in the British Islands, although the draining of the marshes 

 and fens is constantly causing a decrease. The nesting habits are much like 

 those of its American cousin, the nest being placed in a dense tuft of reeds or other 

 marsh-loving vegetation, and lined with dried reeds, grasses, and a scanty inner 

 lining of down. 



Other more or less closely related Old World species are Baer's Pochard (A. 

 baeri) of eastern Siberia and central Asia, the White-eyed Pochard (A. nyroca) of 

 Europe and Asia, the African Pochard (.4. erythrophthalma), which is also said 

 to be the same as the bird of southern Brazil, and the Australian White-eye (A. 

 auslralis), so called on account of the white iris. 



The Scaup-Ducks, of which some six or eight forms are recognized, are by 

 some placed in the same genus with those last mentioned, and by others in a sepa- 

 rate genus (Fuligula). In these birds the culmen is as long as the outer toe with 

 its claw, the bill is wider at the tip than at the base, and the head and neck in the 

 adult males is black, while the speculum is white or bluish gray tipped with 

 black. Perhaps the best-known species is the Scaup-Duck (F. marila}, a bird 

 from eighteen to twenty inches long, found from western Europe to Kamchatka 

 and throughout North America. It breeds in the extreme northern parts of its 

 range, penetrating to lakes and rivers often at a considerable distance from the 

 sea. It is more or less gregarious at all seasons, and feeds on shell-fish, crusta- 

 ceans, and aquatic plants. Its voice is described as very harsh and discordant, 

 resembling the word scaup, screamed in a loud tone. The nest is placed near 

 water and the eggs are from six to nine in number, of a pale greenish gray color. 

 It is found over North America generally, breeding in the far North, Dall having 

 found it nesting near the mouth of the Yukon, making but a rude excavation 



