SCAUP DUCK. Gf 
greater abundance of food along the coast. It is sometimes 
abundant in the Delaware, particularly in those places where 
small snails, its favourite shellfish, abound, feeding also, like 
most of its tribe, by moonlight. They generally leave us in 
April, though I have met with individuals of this species so 
late as the middle of May among the salt marshes of New 
Jersey. Their flesh is not of the most delicate kind, yet some 
persons esteem it. That of the young birds is generally the 
tenderest and most palatable. 
The length of the blue-bill is nineteen inches; extent, twenty- 
nine inches ; bill, broad, generally of a light blue, sometimes 
of a dusky lead colour; irides, reddish ; head, tumid, covered 
with plumage of a dark glossy green, extending half way down 
the neck; rest of the neck and breast, black, spreading round 
to the back ; back and scapulars, white, thickly crossed with 
waving lines of black; lesser coverts, dusky, powdered with 
veins of whitish; primaries and tertials, brownish black ; 
secondaries, white, tipped with black, forming the speculum ; 
stance to see many hundreds of these birds at once, constantly diving 
for food ; but so shy are they, that even with the aid of a very small 
and well-constructed skiff, cautiously paddled, it is difficult to approach 
them within gunshot. So very sagacious are they, that they appear to 
know the precise distance wherein they are safe ; and, after the shooter 
has advanced within this point, they then begin to spread their lines 
in such a manner, that, in a flock of a hundred, not more than three or 
four can be selected in a group at any one view. They swim lowin the 
water ; are strong feathered, and are not easily killed. When slightly 
‘wounded, and unable to fly, it is almost hopeless to follow them, in 
consequence of their great skill in diving. Their wings being short, 
they either cannot rise with the wind when it blows freshly, or they 
are unwilling to do so, for they are invariably seen to rise against the 
wind. In a calm they get up with considerable fluttering, Though 
often seen feeding in places where they can reach the bottom with their 
bills, yet they seldom venture on the shore, the labour of walking ap- 
pearing repugnant to their inclinations. When wounded, they will 
never take to the land if they can possibly avoid it ; and when com- 
pelled to walk, they waddle along in the awkward manner of those birds 
whose legs, placed far behind, do not admit of a free and graceful pro- 
gression,” —Ep, 
