228 SCAUP DUCK. 



however rarely heard during the day, and indeed, Hke many other spe- 

 cies, these birds are partly nocturnal. 



At the approach of spring the Drakes pay their addresses to the fe- 

 males, before they set out on their journey. At that period the males 

 become more active and lively, bowing their heads, opening their broad 

 bills, and uttering a kind of quack, which to the listener seems produced 

 by wind in their stomach, but notwithstanding appears to delight their 

 chosen females. 



The Scaup Duck varies materially as to size at different ages. Some 

 wounded individuals which I kept, and which were birds of the first year, 

 were much larger and heavier at the end of a year ; and I agree with my 

 learned friend Nuttall, that specimens may be procured measuring 

 from sixteen and a half to eighteen, nineteen, or twenty inches in length. 



On the Atlantic coast I have met with this species from the Gulf 

 of Mexico to the Bay of Fundy, and my friend Thomas Macculloch 

 has told me that they are not unfrequent at Pictou in Nova Scotia. Far- 

 ther north I saw none ; and their breeding places are yet unknown to me. 



Anas marila, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 196 — Lath. Iiid. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 853. 

 FuLiGULA MAUiLA, C/i. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 392 



Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 453. 

 Scaup Duck, Anas marila, Wils. Amer. Ornith, vol. viii. p. 84. pi. 69. fig. 8 



Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 437- 



Adult Male. CCXXIX. Fig. 1. 



Bill as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, enlarged and 

 flattened towards the end, which is rounded, the frontal angles narrow 

 and pointed. Upper mandible with the dorsal line at first straight and 

 declinate, then shghtly concave, along theunguis curved, the ridge broad 

 at the base, narrowed at the middle, enlarged and convex towards the 

 end, the sides nearly erect at the base, becoming more and more declinate 

 and convex, the edges curved upwards, with about forty lamellae, the 

 unguis small and oblong. Nostrils submedial, oblong, rather large, per- 

 vious, near the ridge, in an oblong groove with a soft membrane. Lower 

 mandible flat, with the angle very long and rather narrow, the dorsal 

 line very short and straight, the erect edges with about sixty lamellae, — 

 on the upper edge, however, the lamellae are more numerous, — the unguis 

 broadly elliptical. 



