278 NYROCA AFFINIS 



of the Little Blue-bill have very little in common with those of the Greater. Perhaps 

 after all the resemblance of the Lesser to the Greater Scaup is merely another case 

 of the parallelism so common in the animal kingdom and by no means absent among 

 the ducks. 



The Lesser Scaup probably numerically exceeds its neighbor, the Greater Scaup, 

 more than 15 or 20 to one in North America. It seems to fill the same niche here 

 that the Tufted Duck does in Europe, but the two do not appear to be very closely 

 related. This is a duck which frequents both fresh and salt water, preferring inland 

 or sheltered waters that are fresh or brackish. Being perfectly at home in smaller 

 lakes, rivers, and even in many marshes, it is much more evenly distributed than its 

 larger cousin. It migrates earlier and winters for the most part south of the Common 

 Scaup, but where the winter ranges of the two overlap they will be found in rather 

 different situations. The association between the two species is usually of an acci- 

 dental nature and there cannot be said to be any close tie between them, judging by 

 the composition of most flocks. 



Wariness. This is not a wary bird in any sense of the word. It flies low, decoys 

 easily and only becomes well educated where it is assembled in great "rafts" or is 

 subject to constant persecution. These are among the most curious of ducks. Hun- 

 dreds of times I have seen them swim up to within a half-dozen yards of a sand beach 

 just to look over the live Mallard decoys that were playing about in the shallow 

 water. They had nothing in common with the Mallards and there was no suitable 

 feed for them, still the attraction seemed irresistible in nine cases out of ten. Their 

 disposition is as different from that of the Golden-eye, which almost never allows 

 his curiosity to get the better of him, as it possibly can be. They are said to be easily 

 decoyed by means of a red flag or with a dog and they are apt to swim toward a con- 

 cealed person, apparently attracted merely by the sound of crackling reeds and 

 grass (F. Harper, MS.); but this, of course, only where they are seldom disturbed. 

 The little flocks that first arrive in Massachusetts waters in mid-October are often 

 very tame and extremely sociable. They can sometimes be " boated" to within shot 

 in an open canoe and can nearly always be sculled to in a well-concealed duck-boat. 

 They tend to swim a good distance away from the boat before they take wing, string- 

 ing out in a line and offering a poor shot. They follow a moving bunch of wooden 

 decoys even more readily than the Greater Scaup and thus allow themselves to be 

 enticed much nearer the shore than is good for them. 



These ducks become extremely tame where they are protected. This may be seen in 

 many of our own New England ponds and inner harbors, but most notably on Lake 

 Worth in Florida, and Lake Merritt in Oakland, California. In such places they are 

 just like domestic ducks as far as feeding from the hand is concerned. 



