Towns along the Indian River, Florida, have ordinances prohibiting shooting within their limits. LESSER SCAUPS and their friends know river lines of each town better than the townsfolk! I have sailed the length of the Indian River and knew at once when I was approaching a town, by the black areas of massed Ducks ahead. They just about made a lane for the sloop and no more, so leisurely did they move aside, not troubling to take wing.
During the winter in Lake Worth they became so tame that I often was awakened by their clamorous quacks for breakfast alongside the sloop. A few bold ones fed from my hand. If the piece of bread was larger than the bird could swallow, it had to fight to retain the morsel, for in an instant half a dozen were after the possessor. It would have been a simple matter to have Duck for all meals but their flavor did not interest me in the least — wiregrass beef was preferable!
The Lesser Scaup mingles with its big brother and separation of the two is largely guesswork, even in the hand, as intergradation is not unusual. A matter for oral and written fireworks by systematists.
North America. Breeds from central Alaska south to northwestern states of the Union.