490 Anatidce. 



head.' Willoughby explained that ' Scaup ' means ' broken shells,' 

 in allusion to the smaller univalve and bivalve shell-fish on 

 which it feeds ; marila (fiapiKrj) means literally ' the embers of 

 charcoal/ in reference to the pitch-black colour of the plumage 

 on the front parts. So on the Somersetshire coast it is known 

 as the ' Black Duck,' * which is not a very distinctive title, seeing 

 how many other species, clothed with similar dark-coloured 

 plumage, partake of the same name. More appropriately it is 

 known in some localities as the ' Blue-bill.' In British North 

 America it is ' the Big Black-head,' but in Sweden Hvit Buk, or 

 ' White Belly.' In France it is Canard Alilouinan ; in Germany 

 Berg-ente. 



199. TUFTED DUCK (Fuligula cristata). 



This is a regular winter visitant to our shores, and is not un- 

 frequently found inland, for it follows up the rivers from their 

 mouths, and is in no hurry, where it can find an undisturbed 

 retreat, to return to salt water. It is of plump shape, short and 

 compact figure, and partakes of the general appearance of the 

 Scaup, to which it is closely allied. The specimen in my 

 collection was kindly given me by Mr. Swayne, who killed it 

 in 1856,' when shooting with the late Lord Herbert at Grovely, 

 and I have notices of its occurrence in several parts of the 

 county. Major Heneage possesses one which was shot at 

 Lyneham in 1881. Mr. Herbert Smith reports it as common on 

 the Bowood water, and Mr. G. Watson Taylor that it comes to 

 Erlestoke in hard weather. The Rev. A. P. Morres says it is the 

 commonest of the rarer ducks in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, 

 where he sees it in the meadows every hard winter. It is locally 

 known there as the ' Pie-curr.' Mr. Grant reports a pair shot at 

 Netheravon by Mr. F. W. Hussey at the end of January, 1871 ; 

 and I learn from the Field newspaper, under date January 23, 

 1875, that a fine specimen had been killed by Mr. J. J. Estridge, 

 of Bradford-on-Avon, near that town. It derives its name from 

 a long pendant crest of narrow silky feathers, three inches in 

 * Mr. Cecil Smith's ' Birds of Somersetshire,' p. 500. 



