The New Zealand scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae), also known as the black teal or pāpango in Māori, is a diving duck species of the genus Aythya endemic to New Zealand. They weigh around and measure around , and have dark-coloured plumage. They are found throughout New Zealand in deep natural and man-made lakes and ponds. New Zealand scaups lay around 7 eggs and the ducklings are immediately capable of diving to feed, while adult scaups can dive to at least 3 metres and for as long as a minute for aquatic plants and invertebrates. Scaups started declining in the late 1800s until they were fully protected in 1934, and their population is now increasing thanks to predator control and new habitat. Taxonomy The New Zealand scaup was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas novaeseelandiae. Gmelin based his description of the "New-Zealand duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the duck by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. His picture of a male bird was drawn in April 1773 at Dusky Sound, a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand. This picture is the holotype for the species and is now held by the Natural History Museum in London. The New Zealand scaup is now placed with 11 other species in the genus Aythya that was introduced in 1822 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie. The genus name Aythya comes from the Ancient Greek word (), which may have referred to a sea-dwelling duck or an auklet. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Description The New Zealand scaup is a small, round-bodied diving duck that have dark plumage, but both sexes are easily distinguished. They have black legs and webbed feet for swimming, and they spend a lot of time underwater, where they can also travel considerable distances. They measure around in length and weigh around for males, and around for females. The male has dark black-brown plumage with a striking yellow eye and a dark colored (greenish) head.