108 
SCAUP DUCK. 
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 
ten derest 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, second- 
aries, white, tipped with black, forming the speculum ; rump 
and tail-coverts, black ; tail, short, rounded, and of a dusky 
brown ; belly, white, crossed near the vent with waving lines 
of ash ; vent, black ; legs and feet, dark slate. 
Such is the colour of the bird in its perfect state. Young 
birds vary considerably, some having the head black, mixed with 
gray and purple, others the back dusky, with little or no white, 
and that irregularly dispersed. 
The female has the front and sides of the same white ; head 
and half of the neck, blackish brown ; breast, spreading round 
to the back, a dark sooty brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; 
back, black, thinly sprinkled with grains of white ; vent, whit- 
ish ; wings the same as in the male. 
The windpipe of the male of this species is of large diame- 
ter ; the labyrinth similar to some others, though not of the 
largest kind ; it has something of the shape of a single cockle 
shell ; its open side, or circular rim, covered w'ith a thin trans- 
parent skin. Just before the windpipe enters this, it lessens 
its diameter, at least two-thirds, and assumes a flattish form. 
The scaup duck is well known in England. It inhabits 
Iceland and the more northern parts of the continent of Europe, 
Lapland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. It is also common on 
the northern shores of Siberia. It is very frequent on the 
river Ob, Breeds in the north, and migrates southward in 
