234 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



that he never met -with more than two or three in the market there, but 

 immature birds were often obtained in winter. Mr. R. P. ^'ichoils savs 

 it is not common in the Kingsbridge district, and old males are rare. The 

 Scanp occurs sometimes on Slapton Ley in winter ; there were many there, 

 and ou the Kingsbridge estuary, in January 1891 (E. A. S. E.). It has 

 frequently been obtained on the Exe estuary, where it was numerous in 

 February lb55, and some tine adults were shot there during the severe 

 cold of January LSUl. There is a variety of the female in the A. M. M., 

 shot on the Exe in 1847, which has a white collar round the neck. 



The Scaup is one of the most numerous of the wild-fowl which visit the 

 West Country in the autumn, but being of little account for the table, and, 

 as a rule, keeping in large flocks some miles off the coast, not much 

 cxecctiou is done among its numbers by the shore-gunners, who, knowing 

 that it possesses little value, do not trouble themselves much to molest it. 

 After very rough and severe weather the Scaups sometimes are seen in 

 the mouths of our tidal rivers. On the Jiarnstaple river, at Instow, we 

 have met with them, and have there found them to be difficult of approach, 

 as they swam aw^ay from the boat faster than it could follow. Great 

 flocks of Scaups are to be found in the bay at Weston-super-Mare through- 

 out the winter, incessantly diving for their food, together with Common 

 Scoters, Pochards, Tufted Ducks, and a few Golden-eyed Ducks. We have 

 sometimes encountered small parties of Scaups feeding in the water at the 

 edge of the advancing tide, and bj' walking quietly along, and taking no 

 notice of them until we have got well abreast of them, have then, by 

 suddeidy running down, obtained a good shot into the birds, getting near 

 enough in that second of uncertainty in which they did not know whether 

 to swim away or to rise on wing. Or, going out on the bay ia a boat 

 •when the water has been shrouded by a dense fog, Ave have dropped down 

 quietly into the midst of the flocks, and have had them at our mercy, and 

 have had the birds fly close across our bows, or low overhead, oifering 

 easy shots. Put there seemed to be little sport in shooting such useless 

 birds, and we were not often tempted to fire at them. Curiously enough, 

 and it is an instance of the capricious and unequal distribution of wild- 

 fowl along our coasts, the Scaup is rei)orted as a rare bird in the Dorset- 

 shire waters ; there may be something in the warm and muddy shallows 

 of the Severn Sea which suits its tastes ; in old days, when we very fre- 

 qi;ently made the uncomfortable passage across to South Wales bj' the ferry 

 to Portskewet, we invariably saw flocks of Scaups as high up the channel 

 as this in the winter-time. Xor does Mr. Pujdd note it as a common bird 

 in Cornwall, for the reason which he suggests, its keeping generally far out 

 to sea and seldom approaching the bays and estuaries. The Scaup retires 

 to the northern parts of the world for the nesting-season, and !Mr. Dresser 

 states that there is no instance of its having reared a brood anywhere in 

 the United Kingdom. However, ^Ir. Cecil Smith quotes a communication 

 to the ' Zoologist ' for 18G7, p. 878, from Mr. J. H. Harvie-Brown, who 

 mentions Mr. Selby as an authority for a female Scaup having been seen, 

 attended by a young one, on a small loch in Sutherlandshire by Sir 

 William Jardine in 1834. 



