Plate 405
Havell CCXXIX
Lesser Scaup
(Aythya affinis)
Audubon painted this pair of lesser scaups (the female is at right) in New Orleans, as inscribed, in February, 1822, with a habitat done in oil. "They are not worth shooting," Audubon wrote, "... unless for sport or exami-nation, for their flesh is generally tough and rather fishy in flavour. Indeed I know none, excepting what is called an Epicure, who could relish a Scaup Duck."
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.