Volume 40, Plate V / Ornithology (Birds)

Scaup Pochard

Fuligula Gesneri

A handsome compact pochard with a broad depressed body fitted for buoyancy, the male showing a blackish green head, deep black breast, white flanks, and a clear greyish white mantle marked with wavy zigzag lines. A regular winter visitant to British coasts arriving about late October, it frequents low muddy shores feeding on small bivalves, assembles in shy flocks, and breeds in Scandinavia and Iceland by freshwater lakes.