S6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



I have but a short note to add to my former notes on field-marks, namely, 

 that the slate-blue speculum on the wing under usual circumstances can be seen 

 only when the wing is opened. 



58 [147] Marila valisineria (Wils.). 

 Canvas-back. 



Rare transient visitor. October 6 to November 13. 



The October 6 record is of a bird shot at Newburyport in 1905. On Novem- 

 ber 4, 1905, five came in to Wenham Lake and two on November 3, 1909, as 

 reported by Dr. Phillips.^ 



59 [148] Marila marila (Linn.). 



Scaup Duck ; Greater Scaup ; " Bluebill " ; " Bluebill Widgeon '' ; 

 " Widgeon " ; " Blackhead." 



Common transient visitor in the autumn, rare in the spring and winter. 

 March i to May 12 (August 2) ; September 18 to December 26; January and 

 February. 



During January and February from a hundred to two hundred Greater Scaup 

 have frequented Lynn Outer Harbor. As far as I know this is the only place 

 within the limits of the County where this bird regularly winters, although, as 

 noted on page 321 of the original Memoir, one was taken at Ipswich on Feb- 

 ruary 14, 1905. On December 28, 1919, I saw eight off Ipswich Beach. From 

 two to three thousand Scaup Ducks winter near Moon Island at the opening of 

 the metropolitan sewer in Boston Harbor. I have been to this latter station a 

 number of times in the spring with the hopes of seeing the full courtship per- 

 formance of this species. Only once was I at all successful. On this occasion, 

 in mid-April, a band of twenty-five or thirty Scaups, a third males and two-thirds 

 females, were swimming about in close ranks. The males elevated their heads 

 and necks and continually opened and shut the bills. I was unable to hear any 

 sound. According to J. G. Millais,^ the "call of pairing Scaup are very low in 

 tone, and the spectator must be within a few yards of the birds to hear them." 



^ Phillips, J. C. Auk, vol. 28, p. 194, 1911. 



2 Millais, J. G. British Diving Ducks, vol. i, p. 75, 1913. 



