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Status of the American and Lesser Scaup Ducks in Ohio

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Status of the American and Lesser Scaup Ducks in Ohio Vol. XL'VIII1 j No. 257 a LesserScaup Duck swimmingabout. We approachedslowly and were ableto verify it as this form, the bird flying then alighting,flying and again alightingon the lake. It wasa malebird and the latenessof the date made us wonderif it couldbe possiblethat this speciesnested anywhere as far south as this. Giles, a very careful observer,had recorded 14 of these birds, 6 male• and 8 females,on this samelake on June 11, 1930; and had recordsfor June10, 11, 12, 13, and 15, 1929 alsoon Lake Rabun. Arthur H. Howell in 'Birds of Alabama' givesseveral records around the middle of May and Thos. D. Burleigh,writing from Athens, Ga., says:"A rather un- expectedrecord was that of three birds, all females,seen June 21, 1926." Probablythe bird we sawon June28 was a very late migrant or liked the high altitude of north Georgiabetter than a sectionfurther north among its kindred.--EARLER. GREENE,6/• OrmeCircle, Atlanta, Ga. Status of the American and Lesser Scaup Ducks in Ohio.--Consider- able confusionstill existsamong Ohio ornithologisteand sportsmencon- cerningthe relative numbersand abundanceof the AmericanScaup Duck (NFroc• •/l• •arct•) and the LesserScaup Duck (Nyroca Of the former,Dr. Wheaton('Report on the Birdsof Ohio,'1879, p. 530) saysit is a "not uncommonspring and fall migrant in the interior of the State; more commonon Lake Erie, but nowhereabundant." Jonesin 'TheBirds of Ohio,'1903, p. 42and Dawson's 'Birds of Ohio,'1903, p. 604 statesthat in his experiencethe ScaupDuck is about one-fourthas numer- ous as the LesserScaup, especially in northernOhio. Amongthe sporte- men a largespecimen of the LesserScaup is usuallycalled a '•Big Bluebill" whilea smallindividual is a "Little Bluebill." It is agreedthat at present the LesserScaup Duck is one of, if not, the mostcommon Duck occurring in Ohio. During the past sevenyears I have made quite an effort, as have other membersof the WheatonClub of Columbus,to compiledata in regard to thesetwo species.At BuckeyeLake, in the centralpart of Ohio,I examined and measured106 Bluebills,most of which were shot by sportsmen. All of thesewere LesserScaup Ducks. Though the majority were taken in the fall huntingseason, considerable effort was made during the rest of the yearto collectany bird whichlooked suspiciously like the AmericanSeaup. On a few occasionsDucks have been noted which surelywere American Scaups,but in eachcase it was impossibleto collectthem. Somework was also conductedin the SanduskyBay marsheson Lake Erie, especiallyat East Harbor, duringthe latter part of the hunting seasonsof 1924, 1925, and 1926. Though over 250 LesserScaups were handledand measured,no AmericanScaups were found. A number of sportsmen have describedto me a bird taken on rare occasionsin this region,which by its sizemust have been the "Big Bluebill." I have been unableto find an AmericanScaup taken in Ohio, in the Museumsand other collectionsscattered over the State, thougha number of birdswere found labeled American Scaup which in reality were Lesser. 258 Auk At present the Ohio State Museum has 27 specimensof Lesser Scaups from Ohio, from the collectionsof Wheaton, Jasper, Davie, HenningeL and other more recent collectors. I• therefore appears that the American Scaup is one of the rarer of Ohio Ducks, being much less common than usually considered.--MiLTON B. TRAUTMAN,Ohio Division of Conservation,Columbus, Ohio, The American Scoter (Oidemia americana) Again in Winter on the South Carolina Coast.--In 'The Auk' for April, 1929, the writer recordedthe third observanceof this speciesin South Carolina. Since that time additional recordshave strongly indicated that this speciesis on the increasealong the SouthAtlantic coast,certainly as far downas Charleston. These records cover a considerablerange of season;the first one after the above mentionedone occurringon April 6, 1929 when a fine male was taken alive at the same island where the writer and Mr. Weston saw the flock of eight mentioned in the April 'Auk.' This specimenwas securedby Mr. Isaac Grimball and was presentedto the Charleston Museum. In Decem- ber, 1929flocks of the AmericanScorer were seenin Bull's Bay by Mr. E. Milby Burton and two companions,several of the birds being taken ('Auk,' April, 1930). During this past year, the writer s•w this specieson two occasionsoff Folly Island, in huge flocks, sometimesso closein that the birds could be seeneasily without the aid of glasses,playing and swimmingjust beyond the surf line. The dates are December 20, 1930; January 17, 1931. For three consecutive winters AmeriCan Scoters have been noted on the South Carolina coast and are probably to be included in the number of winter residents.--A•E•ER SrRmzr, JR., 92 South Battery, Charleston,S.C. Black-bellied and Fulvous Tree Duck, in Illinois.--On September 15, 1930, a Black-belliedTree Duck (Dendrocygnaautumnalis) was shot, by a hunter, from a tree along the Illinois river, near LaSalle, Illinois. This bird, the sex of which could not be determined,was brought in to a local taxidermist and mounted by him. In mentioning the above to a friend of mine who is also a commercial taxidermist, he told me that someyears ago he mounted a Fulvous Tree Duck (Dendrocygnabicolor) which was brought in to him. We lookedthis bird up in his recordsand found that it was a male, killed off the Gov- ernmentPier, in Chicago,on December7, 1919. Both these birds looked to be healthy, were in goodplumage and did not show any signs of being kept in captivity, although there is a possi- bility of their being caged birds at one time, a fact though of which no one can feel certain.--JoHN WILLIAM MoYER, Field Museum of Natu•'al History, Chicago,Illinois. Lesser Snow Geese in Barry County, Michigan.---On October 21, 1930, two Snow Geesewere shot from a flock of twenty-five,at Crooked Lake, Barry County, Michigan, by J. D. Langworthy of Battle Creek. .
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