355 



FAMILY XXXIX.*— ANATIN^. DUCKS. 

 Genus V.f— FULIGULA. SEA-DUCK. 



COMMON AMERICAN SCAUP DUCK. 



FuLIGULA MARILA. 



PLATE CCCCLXL VIII.— Male and Female. 



It is extremely curious that none of the authors who have written on the 

 ornithology of our country, should have discovered that, independent of the 

 subject which forms this article, another species of Scaup Duck also exists, 

 and that abundantly too, throughout the United States. 



Alexander Wilson figured a Scaup Duck, but in his description of the 

 adult in winter, he says that "the irides" are "reddish," and yet he says that 

 the Scaup Duck is well known in England. Until about two years since, I 

 thought that I had given the history of the Common Scaup Duck, but find 

 now that I have been mistaken, and that all that I have said of " Fuligula 

 Marila"\ must now be applied to Fuligula mariloides of Vigors. The 

 bird which has been described in my Ornithological Biographies, and figured 

 in my large plates, being in fact the Fuligula mariloides of Vigors, who 

 described from a specimen procured during Beechey's voyage. In a note to 

 page 31, Doctor Richardson, who found this latter species, speaks of it as 

 being smaller, but does not point out any specific differences between the 

 two birds; and to William Yarrell, Esq., of London, is now due the 

 knowledge of this species, which he has characterized and described in such 

 a manner as to render it forever a good and true species, differing from the 

 Fuligula Marila in size, being considerably smaller than the latter, the 

 form of its bill, the colouring of the terminal feathers of the head, &c. &c. 



About two years ago, my attention was called to notice the typical Scaup 

 Duck, by Mr. John G-. Bell, of whom I have already spoken, when I 



* See vol. vi. p. 167. t Ibid. p. 198. 



% See vol. vi. p. 316. 



