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FERRUGINOUS DUCK-SCAUP DUCK.

385

request, being considered rank and unpalatable, owing, doubtless, to the difference of diet in the two districts.

The Pochard has been killed in Orkney so late as the 28th of June.

THE FERRUGINOUS DUCK.

FULIGULA NYROCA.

I KNOW of but one instance of the occurrence of this bird in any part of Scotland, viz., a specimen which was shot near Musselburgh in 1855, and exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, on the 26th December, by Dr J. A. Smith, the Society's Secretary, to whom I am indebted for a notice of the circumstance.

The following measurements of the specimen are taken from vol. i., p. 52, of the published proceedings:-"The bird, an adult male, measured 163 inches from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail; and 271⁄2 inches in breadth from point to point of its extended wings. The first primary is the longest, others gradually decreasing in length. From flexure of wing to point of first primary measures 7 inches; inside of wings and axillaries white. Its weight was seventeen ounces. The trachea (which was exhibited), 5 inches long, is peculiar, the upper part being rather more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, gradually expanding to half an inch, and again contracting to less than a quarter of an inch towards the lower part, where it terminates in a bony and membraneous labyrinth about 1 inch in length. The oesophagus was about 7 inches in length; the stomach, a strong and muscular gizzard, was filled with seeds of the oat mixed with small pieces of quartz and gravel. The intestines, from pylorus to anus, were three feet nine inches in length; two cœca, one 4 inches, the other 44 inches long, enter the gut about 2 inches from its lower extremity."

THE SCAUP DUCK.

FULIGULA MARILA.

THIS duck is perhaps the least common among the ordinary seaducks that frequent the western shores of Scotland. Being partial to mud flats, it is found chiefly near estuaries, remaining for the most part out at sea in the day time, where it dives like the scoters

in quest of molluscs and crustacea, and coming shorewards in the evening for a change of diet. I have observed that it will often prefer swimming instead of flying to its night quarters; and, after repeatedly noticing this habit, I have lain in wait on an outlying rocky skerry at the river's mouth, knowing I was sure of a shot. Sometimes in very hard winters the flocks of Scaup Ducks are large, but usually the birds live in small groups, occasionally mixing with golden eyes and scoters. On the Outer Hebrides a few frequent the oozy shores between North Uist and Benbecula, on both sides, from the isle of Gremsay on the east to Baleshare on the west. Late in autumn these small parties are seen there at nightfall dabbling in the mud left bare by the tide; and they usually remain in the neighbourhood of this well known ford throughout the winter. In very stormy weather they appear to seek shelter in the Sound of Harris, where a stray bird occasionally falls to the gun by accident, the species being notorious for the rankness of its flesh, and consequently not in request. Mr J. Macdonald informs me that in the dusk of the evening, when one kind of duck is hardly distinguishable from another, he knocks over a Scaup at times instead of a mallard, but that its numbers are comparatively small, the birds only coming in his way when continued bad weather forces them into the Sound.

Mr Graham states that this species is a regular winter visitant to Iona and the shores of Mull, and that it is often killed near the coast in fresh water. It is likewise seen occasionally on the shores of Islay.

Scaup Ducks appear to linger through the summer in some parts of Scotland. One instance is given by Sir William Jardine, who shot a female bird near Loch Erribol, in Sutherlandshire; and Dr Saxby states that it is occasionally observed in summer in the Shetlands.

THE TUFTED DUCK.

FULIGULA CRISTATA.

In very severe winters the Tufted Duck is much more frequently obtained than in open seasons. This may arise from its habit of keeping out at sea, or well off shore in the firths and estuaries in moderate weather, and coming into our rivers to feed when it is too

rough outside. On the Clyde, numbers are killed every week throughout the winter and sent to the Glasgow market; and limited numbers are also shot on some of the inland lochs and ponds from October to March. I have seen small flocks of this bird, on two or three different occasions, flying at great speed up the river Clyde, a few feet above the surface of the water, and reaching even the Glasgow Bridge at the Broomielaw. On one occasion a beautiful male, accompanied by two females, came up in this way, and pitched down on the river close to the bridge, where they swam about in a half-bewildered state among the broken water caused by a steamer leaving the quay. The male went twice under the paddles of another steamer close at hand, and was at last shot, while his two more soberly dressed companions were allowed to escape. At another time I observed six or eight Tufted Ducks, headed by a splendid male, flying in a string up to the same place; but not liking the appearance of so many revolving wheels in the water, they turned round just as they neared the arches of the bridge, and, after performing a beautiful curve, shot down the river with their usual rapidity. In the winter of 1866-67 great numbers were shot, in company with female golden-eyes, opposite Dumbarton Castle.

In the Outer Hebrides it occurs but sparingly. I have seen it as early as September, and have likewise procured it from Benbecula, later in the season, in the plumage of the first year. In the autumn of 1867, when at Hougharry Point, North Uist, I observed a pair of early visitors on the sea near the shore attending a blackthroated diver which still retained its brilliant summer dress: the weather, which had for some days been rather stormy, was on the afternoon I saw the birds suspiciously serene, the sea having calmed down like a smooth lake, and wrapped itself to sleep in a golden sheet. The diver, as if disinclined for the company of the ducks, pushed himself forward with such force at two or three strokes that he soon left them behind; but for a few seconds the group struck me as being rather interesting and remarkable, and in the accompanying plate* Mr Sinclair has well expressed the movement

* Mr Bott, in reproducing Mr Sinclair's drawing, has attached Macgillivray's name of Tufted Scaup-a name which, in the first proof submitted to me, was inadvertently printed Scamp Duck. Though the origin of the word Scaup has long been questioned, I did not consider the substitution of the other word an improvement, and therefore had it altered.

of this Highland chief and his two unusual followers. Ten days afterwards, when crossing the Minch, in a vain attempt to reach Dunvegan with a rent mainsail, I thought, and not without a certain feeling of bitterness, of the utter impossibility of making any such ornithological observations. I have been on rough seas on many occasions, but a more tumultuous body of water than the Minch presented on that occasion could hardly be conceived: It was certainly a mistake to leave Lochmaddy and the crews of a dozen wind-bound vessels wondering at our temerity. The sea was too rough for even the Manx shearwater, several of which I saw steering for the narrow entrance to the loch as we left it. Three hours afterwards, on returning crippled to our starting point, I saw the wise birds enjoying their shelter, and a host of plunging gannets playing at their old game of "follow my leader." Everything comes in here when it's coorse," said the skipper; and on getting into the snug inn I had left in the morning, with a feeling of relief at my escape, I thought Lochmaddy not such a bad place after all.

66

THE LONG-TAILED DUCK.

FULIGULA GLACIALIS.

Eun buchuinn.

THE Long-tailed Duck, or Northern Hareld of British authors is, to the greater number of their readers, one of the rarer species, whose habits and history appear to have received less consideration than they merit. Since the time of Willughby these have been but lightly treated, one writer having handed down what another had written before him, without adding a word from personal observation. Hence, this most interesting and beautiful bird holds a place among the feathered tribes of our country as an uncommon visitor, its occurrence on our coasts being merely records of where the bird was found and by whom it was shot. Yet in many parts of Scotland the species is tolerably well known, as it returns regularly each season to its accustomed haunts, where food and other causes make the locality attractive. In the winter season, from October till March, it is very common in the Sound of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and is likewise met with in considerable numbers off the coasts of Skye, Mull, and Islay, but southwards of

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