Scaup Duck. 489 



borders : two of which were shot by Mr. W. H. Stagg, of Nether- 

 avon, on December 9, 1875, and for information as to the third r 

 I am indebted to the Rev. E. Duke, of Lake House, who kindly 

 wrote me word that a specimen had been captured on the river 

 there. The specific name, nyroca, is Latinized from the Russian, 

 which I can neither spell nor pronounce ; but the English specific 

 name, 'ferruginous,' is obviously derived from its dark-brown 

 back. It is also called the ' White-eyed Duck/ and the ' White 

 Eye,' by our older writers ; as in France, Canard a iris blanc ; 

 and in Germany, Die iveissaugige Ente ; and by our Fleming, 

 Nyroca leucopthalmos, from the conspicuous white eye which is 

 its distinguishing characteristic. It may however, as Sir R. 

 Payne- Gall wey points out, be easily mistaken for the female 

 Golden-Eye, not only from the colour of the irides, but from the 

 white wing-patch, and the general colour of the plumage. In 

 Spain it is Pardote ; and in Portugal Negrinha, ' Negress.' 



198. SCAUP DUCK (Fuligula marila). 



This, too, is a very common bird on the British coasts, and as it 

 frequents the southern shores in vast numbers, it is not surprising 

 that a straggler occurs in Wiltshire occasionally. Mr. Grant 

 records the capture of one at Erlestoke Park, on February 13, 

 1862, and another at Bulkington in January, 1864. The Marl- 

 borough College Natural History Reports state that one was shot 

 at Mildenhall in 1870, by the Rev. C. Soames, and Mr. S. B. 

 Dixon mentions that one was shot in the Pewsey water-meadows 

 in February, 1873, by Mr. C. Goode. But it is a thorough sea- 

 bird, preferring the muddy estuaries and tide-washed sand-banks- 

 to any inland lakes or rivers, in which it differs materially from 

 the Pochard, to which it is otherwise closely allied. It is a 

 winter visitor here, arriving early in November, and retiring in 

 spring to high northern latitudes, where it breeds. It is of stout 

 compact shape, and the black head and neck glossed with green 

 reflections, and the gray and white spotted plumage of the back, 

 contrast to great advantage. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, however, 

 pronounces it 'an ungainly-looking fowl, especially about the 



