FULIGULA MAR] LA. 237 



speed, I found that they can work up a very creditable pace, indeed they 

 quite deceived nie, my first shot at driven birds being a yard behind, and 

 even the second, which brought down a bird, was not enough forward. 



On land they are, perhaps, even more awkward in commencing to fly 

 than from the water, and it must be, indeed, severe pressure which can 

 induce them to change their slow waddle into a quicker shuffle. They 

 have the repute of being not wild birds, and of being fairly easy of 

 a})proach on the water, and, when hard pressed, of frequently preferring to 

 attempt escape by diving rather than by taking flight. So great, however, 

 are their diving powers that they are perhaps as difficult to bring to bag as 

 are the wilder birds which more quickly take to wing. Wounded only, it 

 is as likely as not that the bird may escape, as it is almost impossible to 

 follow its movements, and when it does appear on the surface, again 

 disappears with such rapidity that it takes a gunner of some smartness to 

 get a shot at it and finish it off". 



The food of the Scaup is everywhere chiefly of an animal character. 

 Inland, doubtless, it feeds to a certain extent on water-weeds, &c., these 

 being mainly such as grow at some dej)th and are obtained by diving ; but 

 even here shell-fish, frogs, insects, form the greater part of its diet. When 

 in its natural element, on sea, in creeks, estuaries, or along the coast, it is 

 almost entirely an animal-feeder, subsisting on shell-fish, small fish, and 

 other marine small life. 



Its name is derived from its habit of feeding on mussels, the beds 

 on which the masses of shell-fish lie being known as mussel-scaups, or 

 mussel-scalps (Blanford and Newtonj, and in Norfolk I have heard both 

 fresh- and salt-water mussels called sculps, though the term is usually 

 applied more to the latter than to the former. Hume, quoting Montague, 

 says that " Both the male and the female have a peculiar habit of tossing 

 up their heads and opening their bills, which in spring is continued for a 

 considerable time, while they are swimming and sporting on the water, 

 and they emit a grunting sort of cry." The voice of the Scau[) is thus 

 described by Seebohm : — " Of all the cries of the clucks that have comc^ 

 under my notice, I think that of the Scaup is the most discordant. None 

 of them are very musical, perhaps ; but if you imagine a man with an 

 exceptionally harsh, hoarse voice screaming out the word scaup at the 

 top of his voice, some idea of the note of this duck may b(^ formed. It is 

 said that when this harsh note is uttered the opening of the bill is 

 accompanied with a peculiar toss of the head. The ordinary alarm-note 

 during flight is a grating sound like that made by the Tufted Duck." 



Its flesh, as might be expected, is quite unfit, as a rule, for the table, 



