87 
SCAUP DUCK. 
J1JVJ3S MJIRILJI. 
[Plate LXIX. — Fig, 3, Male.'\ 
Gmel. Syst, I, p. 509, No. 8. — Ind. Orn. p. 853, No. 54. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 500, No. 49 ; Id. 
Sup. II, p. 351, No. 19. — Le petit Morillon raye., Briss. VI, p. 416, 26, A. — Arct. ZooL 
No. 498. — Br. Zool, No. 275. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Bewick, II, /j. 304. — Temm. 
Man. d’Orn. p. 865. — Le Millouinan^ Buff. IX, p. 221. PL Enl. 1002. — Cuv. R^g. An. 
I, p. 535. — Anas franata^ Sparkman, Mus. Carls. Jas. II, No. female. — Peale’s 
Museum^ No. 2668 ; female^ No. 2669. 
THIS Duck is better known among us by the name of the 
Blue-bilL On the waters of the Chesapeake it is called the Black- 
head. It is an excellent diver; and according to Willughby feeds 
on a certain small kind of shell-fish called Scaup, whence it has 
derived its name. It is common both to our fresh water rivers and 
seashores in winter. Those that frequent the latter are generally 
much the fattest, on account of the greater abundance of food 
along the coast. It is common throughout the winter on the Dela- 
ware, particularly in those places where small snails, its favorite 
shell-fish, abound; feeding also, like most of its tribe, by moonlight. 
They generally leave us in the latter part of April, though I have 
met with individuals as 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 ge- 
nerally 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 color; irides bright golden, pupil very small ; chin, 
front, crown and lores, deep black; head tumid, covered with plu- 
