7 6 British Diving Ducks 
range southward. Writing in a note to me of the discovery of the first nest found in 
Britain, Mr. Heatley Noble says: — 
I found the nest of the Scaup on an island in Loch Beannach, near Lairg, Sutherland, after 
watching the old birds for several days. On the loch there were two females and one male, but only one 
of the former was nesting. I took the nest on June 14th, and found the eggs to be fresh. There has been 
some doubt cast on the identification of this nest, but no mistake was possible. The three birds were the 
only ducks on the loch ; they were fairly tame, and I watched them every day at close range until I put 
the female off the nest. She then swam away quite close to me, and was joined by the male. I then 
lay down in the rushes and watched her go back to the nest. The white face of the female was very 
distinct, and in addition all the feathers found in the nest were unmistakable. The nest was close to the 
water's edge, and the number of eggs nine." 
I have not heard any doubts cast on the authenticity of this nest. It is not the least 
likely that so excellent a field-ornithologist, as Mr. Heatley Noble is, could have been mistaken 
in his identification of the birds. 
I found a very large number of Scaups' nests at Myvatn, Iceland, in the last week in 
June 1889. For the most part the birds seemed to be very gregarious, after the manner 
of Eiders, in this favourite nesting-place. I pitched my camp one evening, after a fifty-mile 
ride from the Skalfandi river, within 100 yards of the Myvatn farm-house, the only one in 
the district, and found that accidentally I had made my temporary home in the very home 
of the nesting Scaup. But the birds did not seem to mind in the least, so I was happy 
for a week observing them and their neighbours, Barrow's Golden-Eyes, Long-tailed 
Ducks, Mallard, Wigeon, Pintail, a few Teal and Black Scoter, and a host of other in- 
teresting fowl, at very close range. All the ducks at Myvatn were remarkably tame, most 
of all the Barrow's Golden-Eyes, the Long- tailed Ducks, and the Scaup. At this date 
there were few male Scaup on the little river, on the high banks of which the females were 
nesting, as it was just the period when love grows cold in duckish affections, and the 
attractions of " the club," in the shape of the great Myvatn lake, were superior in the male 
mind. The Long-tailed Ducks only occasionally made their nests with Scaup, whilst 
Barrow's Golden-Eye females utilised holes in the banks of the Skalfandi Laxa stream, 
but many Mallard, and a few Wigeon, Pintail, and Teal nested in amongst the Scaup. 
In an area of three or four acres near the farm there must have been over 100 Scaup nesting. 
In many cases two or three nests were placed touching one another, whilst in others two 
Scaup nests could be seen with a Mallard duck or a Wigeon sitting sandwiched in between. 
I found other Scaup nests near the lake itself, hidden in the dwarf osier and deep sedge, 
close to the water ; but all the nests near the farm were almost completely in the open, 
often without any concealment whatever except a little sparse rough grass along the edge. 
At this date, too, they were all the more prominent by being heaped up round the edge 
with quantities of down,^ which with loose feathers could be seen from some distance. All 
the nests were large and deep in the centre. On the high ground, sometimes 20 and 30 
yards from the stream below, the nests were only composed of dried grass and other dry 
vegetation, the birds not troubling to bring sedge and water plants, but using any material 
near at hand. I often saw females waddling clumsily up to the nest and settling themselves 
without fear within a few yards. On leaving the nest they covered the eggs with down 
^ For notes on the down of this species see H. Noble, British Birds, ii. p. 38 ; also Ootheca wolleyana. 
