Greater scaup days. The down-covered ducklings are able to follow their mother in her search for food immediately after hatching. Greater scaup eat aquatic molluscs, plants, and insects, which they obtain by diving underwater. They form large groups, called "rafts", that can number in the thousands. Their main threat is human development, although they are preyed upon by owls, skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and humans. Greater scaup populations have been declining since the 1980s; however, they are still listed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List. The genus name "Aythya" is derived from the Ancient Greek "aithuia" which
A Bird came down the Walk other evil forces.Then the narrator offers the bird a piece of crumb,but the bird neglects it and then it flies away. Helen Vendler regards the poem as a "bizarre little narrative" but one that typifies many of Dickinson's best qualities. She likens the poet to a reporter observing a murderer in the act, and later, pretending fear that the murderer may be dangerous to herself and must be mollified by a "crumb". The bird takes flight and Vendler regards what follows - the description of the bird in flight - as "the astonishing part of the poem". Vendler notes that