Scaup Duck 
71 
south from the breeding places to the open sea, where they assemble in large numbers. 
Only a few remain near their summer homes, where there may be permanent open water, 
such as the south coast of Iceland and the Faroes, and they appear to prefer the fringe of 
the ice region, such as the north coasts of Britain and Germany, to the sheltered seas and 
freshwater lakes of Southern Europe and North Africa. It is not correct to speak of 
them as strictly sea ducks, for, on migration in autumn, numbers of Scaup (generally 
immatures) find their way to all the large sheets of fresh water in the centre of Britain and 
Germany, whilst large areas of brackish water, such as Loch Stenness in Orkney, which 
contain molhiscce may be resorted to by them for the whole winter. Yet, except in summer, 
it is rare to find Scaup in any numbers on fresh water, and if disturbed they have no 
hesitation in leaving such ponds or lakes as they may have casually chosen. During gales 
large numbers of Scaup will sometimes leave the sea and resort for a few days to inland 
lakes in the immediate vicinity of the coast, and every winter one may see considerable 
parties of Scaup on sheets of water such as the lochs of Strathbeg, Spynie, and the lochs 
of the Outer Hebrides, in Scotland. In fact even in fine weather they will come into these 
sheltered havens to drink, preen, and bathe, returning to the sea at night to feed. 
Their true home in winter may be said to be quiet gulfs and bays on the sea itself, or 
broad estuaries just at the mouth, where large mussel-banks are disclosed or easily reached 
at low tide. Unlike surface-feeding ducks, whose condition is greatly affected by a con- 
tinued spell of frost. Scaup Ducks are capable of withstanding a great degree of cold, and 
remain in good condition however severe the winter, since their food is always obtainable 
as long as the bays in which they live are not frozen over. In the severe winter of 1894-95 
I killed numbers of surface-feeding ducks that were little better than skeletons, whilst the 
Scaup that I obtained in the northern firths were quite as fat as usual. It is only when 
they remain too long on freshwater lakes, as they sometimes do in Germany, and get 
caught by the first severe frosts that drive them to slow-running rivers of fresh water, 
that Scaup are affected by severe conditions. 
Naumann thus speaks of the habit of Scaup of moving to freshwater lakes in the 
vicinity of the coasts being frequent : — 
"On many coasts, such as those of Pommern and others of the Baltic, where these duck are 
wont to assemble in enormous flocks, they sometimes remove their place of sojourn of their own 
accord now to one place, now to another, and in this way return again to the first, and their migration 
hither and thither, especially in spring when the mating instinct is aroused, seems quite endless. Flights 
like these change, too, in the evening from the sea to large inland lakes situate near, and indeed, as 
usual, not in solitary sections, but in a single uninterrupted flock, stretching to an interminable length, 
which, strange to say, always follows the same course, as though a defined high road led through the air. 
The comparatively small number which visit these land lakes also in autumn, know nothing of these 
night and morning changes and remain at night on these same large basins of water, and seldom visit 
surrounding small pools." 
Although by no means a very shy bird or one presenting any great difficulties to 
the gunner, the Scaup Duck nevertheless exercises a considerable degree of caution in 
the choice of its position by day. On large lakes Scaup generally keep in the most 
open places farthest from the shore, only swimming in to the feeding grounds at stated hours. 
On the estuaries they prefer shallows off the mussel-banks which are themselves the 
termination of land surrounded by great flats, where the approach of human beings can 
