TJie Scottish Naturalist. 341 



ill fate afterwards attended it, or that the snails being finished it 

 went in search of other food, is not known, but it finally dis- 

 appeared. 



125. SoMATERiA MOLLissiMA, Boie. (Elder Duck.) 



During the winter months the Eider Duck is abundant at the 

 mouth of the Tay, and Mr Nelson informs me that a few pairs 

 nest on Tents Muir and the sands of Barry every summer. Mr 

 Horn mentions the Eider Duck on Loch Tay : probably these 

 birds may have reached the loch from the west coast, as I have 

 no knowledge of their ever ascending the Tay from the east ; 

 indeed I have never found them doing so at any time, but have 

 always seen them in the salt water. 



SoMATERiA sPECTABiLis, Boie. (King Duck.) 



The King Duck is said to have been seen occasionally off the 

 mouth of the Tay during the winter months, and Mr Harvie- 

 Brown states that Mr J. Anderson, in a letter to him, mentions 

 that King Ducks were plentiful in the beginning of January 

 (1879) about Dundee; and Mr Nelson tells me he killed a 

 female of this species there some years ago. 



126. OiDEMiA NIGRA, Flem. (Commou Scoter.) 



127. OiDEMiA FUSCA, Flem. (Velvet Scoter.) 



Both these species are common in the salt water at the mouth 

 of the river every winter, the latter being perhaps the more 

 abundant of the two. Mr Harvie - Brown states his having 

 noticed a large flock of Scoters frequenting St Andrews Bay all 

 summer (Scot. Nat, vol. iii. p. 348),^ and questions the cause of 

 their appearing so late. That they do so, and I believe pretty 

 regularly, there can, I think, be no doubt, as I have on several 

 occasions, in different years, noticed them in the Bay of St 

 Andrews in large flocks both in the months of June and July : 

 these, through the aid of a powerful glass, I took to be mostly 

 Velvet Scoters. I have also noticed large numbers very late in 

 the season in the Forth ; and the habit of their assembling them- 

 selves together in this way during the breeding season does not 

 seem to be confined to this country, for I have observed the 

 same fact in the Gulf of St Lawrence, where I saw the Scoters 

 in large flocks all summer ; and, as far as I could make out, the 



^ Proceedings of Nat. Soc. of Glasgow, Sept. 1879, p. \'$>y^<^>\y\\j ^ I 



I I Bk n A ta 



