IIQ SCAUP DUCK. 



The windpipe of the male of this species is of large diameter ; the 

 labyrinth similar to some others, though not of the largest kind ; it has 

 something of the shape of a single cockle shell ; its open side or circular 

 rim, covered with a thin transparent skin. Just before the windpipe 

 enters this, it lessens its diameter at least two-thirds, and assumes a 

 flattish form. 



The Scaup Duck is well known in England. It inhabits Iceland and 

 the more northern parts of the continent of Europe, Lapland, Sweden, 

 Norway, and Russia. It is also common on the northern shores of 

 Siberia. Is very frequent on the river Ob. Breeds in the north, and 

 migrates southward in winter. It inhabits America as high as Hud- 

 son's Bay, and retires from this last place in October.* 



Note. — Pennant and Latham state that the male weighs a pound and 

 a half ; and the female two ounces more. This is undoubtedly an error, 

 the female being less than the male, and the latter being generally the 

 fattest. Montagu says that the species weighs sometimes as much as 

 thirty-five ounces, which statement comes nearer the truth than that of 

 the foregoing. On the eighth of April, of the present year (1824), I 

 shot, on the Delaware, an adult male which weighed two pounds and 

 three-quarters. I have frequently shot them of two pounds and a half; 

 and on the Chesapeake, and on the coast, they are still heavier. 



In the Delaware there are several favorite feeding grounds of the 

 Blue-bill along the Jersey shore, from Burlington to Mantua creek ; but 

 the most noted spot appears to be the cove which extends from Timber 

 creek to Eagle Point, and known by the name of Ladd's Cove. Thither 

 the Blue-bills repair in the autumn, and never quit it until they depart 

 in the spring for the purpose of breeding, except when driven away, in 

 the winter, by the ice. It is no uncommon circumstance to see many 

 hundreds of these birds at once constantly diving for food ; but so shy 

 are they, that even with the aid of a very small and well-constructed 

 skifF, cautiously paddled, it is diflScult to approach them within gunshot. 

 So very sagacious are they, that they appear to know the precise dis- 

 tance wherein they are safe ; and, after the shooter has advanced within 

 this point, they then begin to spread their lines in such a manner that, 

 in a flock of a hundred, not more than three or four can be selected in 

 a group at any one view. They swim low in the water ; are strong 

 feathered ; and are not easily killed. When slightly wounded, and unable 

 to fly, it is almost hopeless to follow them, in consequence of their 

 Hkill great in diving. Their wings being short they either cannot rise 

 \pitb. the wind, when it blows freshly, or they are unwilling to do so, for 



* Latham. 



