162 SOMATEPJA SPECTABILIS. 



breed there for several years, and is now only a rare occasional 

 visitant to Orkney. Mr. St. John says it is sometimes seen 

 at the Kyle of Tongue, in Sutherland. 



It is said to be of rare occurrence in Denmark and Nor- 

 way ; to breed in small nvmibers in Feroe and Iceland ; but 

 to be plentiful, in the breeding season, in Nova Zembla, 

 Spitzbergen, Greenland, the North Georgian Islands, and 

 other parts of the extreme north. " Vast numbers of this 

 beautiful Duck," Captain James C. Ross states, " resort 

 annually to the shores and islands of the arctic regions in the 

 breeding season, and have on many occasions afforded a 

 valuable and salutary supply of fresh provision to the crews 

 of the vessels employed on those seas. On our late voyages 

 comparatively few were obtained, although seen in very great 

 numbers. They do not retire far to the south during the 

 winter, but assemble in large flocks ; the males by themselves, 

 and the females with their young brood, are often met with 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, far distant from any land, -where the 

 numerous cristaceous and other marine animals afford them 

 abundance of food." 



Mr. Audubon says it rarely advances farther south than 

 the neighbourhood of the Bay of Boston, although formerly it 

 was not at all of rare occurrence there during winter, and a 

 few had been known to breed in company with the Eider 

 along the coast. He saw some in Labrador, but did not find 

 any nests. 



Remarks. — This species, extremely rare in Scotland, has 

 been found in Ireland, although there also " extremely rare," 

 more frequently than in Britain. Mr. Thompson records the 

 occurrence of a female shot at Kingstown Harbour in Octo- 

 ber 1837 ; two specimens, females or immature males, obtained 

 by Mr. R. Chute, one in the winter of 1843, from Derrynane, 

 the other in that of 1846, from Tralee Bay ; a fourth bird, a 

 female, shot in March 1850, in Belfast Bay. 



