THE SCAUP DUCK. 
29 
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 Mexico 
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. 
Scaup Duck, Anas Marila, Wils. Amer. Ora., vol. viii. p. 84. 
Fuuigula Makila, Scaup Duck , Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 456. 
Scaup Duck, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 43V. 
Scaup Duck, Fuligula Marila , Aud. Ora. Biog., vol. iii. p. 226 ; vol. v. p 614. 
Male, 16i, 29. Female, 161, 28. 
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 lamellas, 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 
