SCAUP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Scaup

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Scaup n.

A bed or stratum of shellfish; scalp. (Scot.)

(Zool.) A scaup duck. See below.

Scaup duck (Zool.), any one of several species of northern ducks of the genus Aythya, or Fuligula. The adult males are, in large part, black. The three North American species are: the greater scaup duck (Aythya marila, var. nearctica), called also broadbill, bluebill, blackhead, flock duck, flocking fowl, and raft duck; the lesser scaup duck (Aythya affinis), called also little bluebill, river broadbill, and shuffler; the tufted, or ring-necked, scaup duck (Aythya collaris), called also black jack, ringneck, ringbill, ringbill shuffler, etc. The common European scaup, or mussel, duck (Aythya marila), closely resembles the American variety.

See images of 'Scaup'

Etymology of 'Scaup'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Scaup" Quotes from Famous Books

... constancy of the mallard and other wild kinds to a single mate have hastily assumed that such hybrids are unknown in the natural state. This, however, is incorrect, as there have been authentic cases of crosses between mallard and teal, pochard and scaup and other species, such hybrids having at different times been erroneously accepted as ...

— Birds in the Calendar • Frederick G. Aflalo

... birds that give the summer life on Novaya Zemlya its peculiar character, we may further reckon the scaup-duck and the swan. Alfogel or allan, the long-tailed duck (Fuligula glacialis, L.) is rare on Spitzbergen, but occurs very generally on Novaya Zemlya, and especially in the Kara Sea, on whose coasts it is seen in summer collected in large flocks. ...

— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold

... the army—would flap their wings, rise from the white waves, and make for the calm water. Here they come! I can see the pied golden-eye pre-eminent among the advancing party; now the pochard, with his copper-coloured head and neck, may be distinguished from the darker scaup-duck; already the finger is on the trigger, when, perhaps, they suddenly veer to the right and left, far beyond the reach of my longest barrel or, it may be, come swishing overhead, and leave a companion ...

— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas

Words linked to "Scaup" : Aythya, broadbill, lesser scaup duck, duck, genus Aythya, Aythya marila, lesser scaup, greater scaup, lake duck, bluebill