252 SCAUP DUCK. Class II. 



both above and below, black ; the thighs barred 

 with dusky and white strokes ; the legs dusky. 

 Female. [The head of the female is of a dark brown 

 color ; at the base of the bill is a band of white 

 nearly half an inch broad, which passes round 

 the forehead, cheeks, and throat ; the breast is 

 dark brown ; the back and scapulars light grey, 

 transversely waved with irregular dusky lines ; 

 the belly dirty white ; the tail short, dark brown, 

 and consists of fourteen featliers; the greater 

 quil feathers the same ; the secondaries white 

 tipped with brown ; the legs dusky blue ; the 

 webs black.] 



Mr. JVillughby acquaints us, that these birds 

 take their name from feeding on scaup, or 

 broken shell fish : they differ infinitely in co- 

 lors ; so that in a flock of forty or fifty there 

 are not two alike.* ^ -*- '- 



* A drawing of the female of this species was communicated 

 to Mr. Pennant by the reverend Hugh Davies, about the year 

 1792. The same is figured in the Museum Carlsonianum, un- 

 der the name of the Anas frcenata, and has been more recently 

 given to the pubUc in Mr. Sowerhys British Miscellany, pi. 62. 

 under the denomination of the White faced Duck ; he received 

 his specimen from Yorkshire, and considers it as a distinct spe- 

 cies. Dr. Latham, in his second supplement, p. 351, however 

 clearly proves that it is the female Scaup. Ed. 



