LESSER SCAUP DUCK 283 



a tinge of buff, to a rich olive buff. In size they are smaller, measuring 53.3-60.0 

 mm. in length and 39.0-42.0 mm. in breadth, the average being 57.5 by 40.5 mm. 

 (Bent, 1901-02). 



Mr. Wolfe, who has reared many of these ducks from eggs gathered in the wild, 

 writes me that they hatch in twenty-two to twenty -three days. 



The young dive readily within forty-eight hours after hatching, although, of 

 course, as with other young ducks, most of the food is at first found on the surface. 



The laying season extends over a long period. Harper (MS.) saw males still pur- 

 suing the females as late as July 9. By July 6 many, if not most of the males, showed 

 the beginning of an eclipse plumage by their dark-colored flanks. The earliest in- 

 dications of change, a light-brownish ring about the neck, were indicated in a few 

 males as early as June 17. The males desert the females at the beginning of in- 

 cubation and then gather in small flocks. After the 10th of July flocks of adults of 

 from five to twenty birds were commonly seen. Before that date the birds were 

 always in pairs. Mr. Allan Brooks found that in northern British Columbia the 

 males stayed about near the nesting grounds until they were well along in eclipse but 

 most, if not all, vanished by the 22d of July. He did not see any that were flightless. 



Status. Why a common species and one not popular for the table should have 

 suffered any great reduction is rather a puzzle. But such has undoubtedly been the 

 case on the Atlantic coast all the way from New England to Florida. Although 

 still one of the most abundant ducks it has probably shown a decrease of 50 or 

 60 per cent in the past thirty or forty years. Evidence of any recovery is only re- 

 cent, and it has not responded to the increased protection of the past ten years as 

 rapidly as other species: Mallard, Pintail and Black Duck, for instance. In estimat- 

 ing the comparative status of this duck we come upon several difficulties. Ducking 

 clubs do not shoot them if better ducks are to be had, and when they do they are 

 lumped on the score-books with the Greater Scaup. If a club shoots on a marsh or 

 in shallow ponds, few Greater Scaup will be killed, but this does not mean that the 

 larger species may not be numerous in some neighboring sheet of water better 

 adapted to them. Most of the Scaups shot in the Lake Erie marshes are of the 

 Lesser sort, and they are numerous there both spring and autumn. In fact this is 

 much the commonest of the diving ducks there in the spring. The club scores do 

 not point to any special decrease, but for various reasons one cannot place much 

 reliance upon figures for this species. At Wenham, Massachusetts, my autumn 

 records point to a decided decrease since I began to shoot there in 1899. Here they 

 represent 15 per cent of all ducks shot, taking a twenty-year period average, and 

 they are the second species in abundance, only exceeded by the Black Duck. On 

 Martha's Vineyard island they are abundant, but not increasing. 



During their flight along our eastern-coast ponds they do not tarry very long in 



