quently that it no longer has that status and we now expect it as a raid-winter 

 visitor off-shore and in our sounds". The most recent analysis (Denton et al. 

 1977), on the other hand, considers the Black Scoter uncommon in winter and oc- 

 casional in other seasons. 



Florida Through the year 1925 there were only about seven records, all 

 from the east coast (Howell 1932). Sprunt (1954) summarized four Gulf coast 

 records, and noted that a high proportion of all Florida records were in the 

 spring or early summer. At present, the Black Scoter is considered rare to un- 

 common on both coasts of Florida, although regular in the Upper Gulf, and ob- 

 servations are occurring with greater frequency than in the past (Kale 1979 

 ms a , 1979 ms b) . 



Alabama Black Scoters are rare to casual visitors on the Alabama coast, 

 occurring most frequently in Mississippi Sound. They have been recorded be- 

 tween November and April, and one was observed in the vicinity of Dauphin Is- 

 land during the summer of 1970 (Imhof 1976b). 



Mississippi The status of Black Scoters in Mississippi is imperfectly 

 known; they are evidently uncommon or rare. Jackson and Weber (1977) and Weber 

 and Jackson (1977) listed recent sightings of three inland on Sardis Lake from 

 early November through 22 December 1976, and of eight on the coast at East Ship 

 Island, 10 March 1977. 



Louisiana The Black Scoter is uncommon in Louisiana waters but has become 

 more common in recent years. There were only five records through 1960 but by 

 1973 the species had been recorded 19 times, with a total of 120 birds. Dates 

 of occurrence through this period range from 25 October through 25 May, with no 

 clear pattern of distribution (Lowery 1974). Most of the records were from the 

 coast . 



Texas Oberholser (1974) considered this duck a rare and irregular winter 

 visitor. It is chiefly coastal in its distribution but there are several in- 

 land records. According to Palmer (1976b), it was once the rarest scoter on 

 the coast but is now the most common. Dates of occurrence given by Oberholser 

 (1974) are from 4 November to 21 April. 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding The breeding distribution of the Black Scoter is not well known 

 but most of the breeding population is found between 75° N and 50° N latitude 

 and in the northern Palearctic and northwestern Nearctic. In the Old World it 

 breeds in Iceland, the Faeroes, and through Scandinavia to the Taimyr Penin- 

 sula. Another population breeds in northeastern Siberia ( BOU 1971). The pri- 

 mary breeding population within North America is in northwestern Alaska, with 

 smaller numbers breeding in Ungava (Palmer 1976b). Few breeding records are 

 available for Canada, but Bellrose (1976) suggested the possibility of a large 

 breeding population west of James Bay. 



The numbers of Black Scoters breeding in North America are not known ade- 

 quately. Bellrose (1976) stated that most of the 252,000 scoters found in 



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