318 THE SCAUP DUCK. 



The Scaup Duck varies materially as to size at different ages. Some 

 wounded individuals which I kept, and which were birds of the first year, 

 were much larger and heavier at the end of a year; and I agree with my 

 learned friend Nuttall, that specimens may be procured measuring from 

 sixteen and a half to eighteen, nineteen, or twenty inches in length. 



On the Atlantic coast I have met with this species from the Gulf of Mexi- 

 co to the Bay of Fundy, and my friend Thomas MacCulloch has told me 

 that they are not unfrequent at Pictou in Nova Scotia. Farther north I saw 

 none; and their breeding places are yet unknown to me. 



ScaupJDuck, Anas Marila, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 84. 



Fuligdla Marila, Scaup Duck, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 456. 



Scaup Duck. Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 437. 



Scaup Duck, Fuligula Marila, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 226; vol. v. p. 614. 



Male, 161 29. Female, 161 2S> 



Abundant during autumn on the Ohio and its tributaries, as well as those 

 of the Missouri and the Mississippi. Rather common also along the Middle 

 Atlantic Districts. Breeds far north. 



Adult Male. 



Bill as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, enlarged and flat- 

 tened towards the end, which is rounded, the frontal angles narrow and 

 pointed. Upper mandible with the dorsal line at first straight and declinate, 

 then slightly concave, along the unguis curved, the ridge broad at the base, 

 narrowed at the middle, enlarged and convex towards the end, the sides 

 nearly erect at the base, becoming more and more declinate and convex, the 

 edges curved upwards, with about forty lamella?, the unguis small and ob- 

 long. Nostrils sub-medial, oblong, rather large, pervious, near the ridge, in 

 an oblong groove with a soft membrane. Lower mandible flat, with the 

 angle very long and rather narrow, the dorsal line very short and straight, 

 the erect edges with about sixty lamellae, — on the upper edge, however, the 

 lamellae are more numerous, — the unguis broadly elliptical. 



Head of moderate size. Eyes small. Neck of moderate length, rather 

 thick. Body comparatively short, compact, and depressed. Wings small. 

 Feet very short, strong, placed rather far behind; tarsus very short, com- 

 pressed, anteriorly with a series of broad scutella, externally of which is 

 another of smaller, the rest reticulated with angular scales. Hind toe small, 

 with a free membrane beneath; anterior toes double the length of the tarsus, 

 united by reticulated membranes having a sinus at their free margins, the 

 outer and inner with loose somewhat lobed marginal membranes, all oblique- 

 ly scutellate above, the third and fourth about equal and longest. Claws 



