Scaup (?), n. [See Scalp a bed of oysters or mussels.]
1.
A bed or stratum of shellfish; scalp.
[Scot.]
2. 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 (A. affinis), called also little bluebill, river broadbill, and shuffler; the tufted, or ring-necked, scaup duck (A. collaris), called also black jack, ringneck, ringbill, ringbill shuffler, etc. See Illust. of Ring-necked, under Ring-necked. The common European scaup, or mussel, duck (A.marila), closely resembles the American variety.
© Webster 1913.