BLACK SCOTER. 143 



banks, where it obtains its subsistence by diving, muscles, 

 mactra, fellina?, and other species of bivalve mollusca consti- 

 tuting its food. Its habits are essentially the same as those 

 of the Velvet Scoter. I have seen large flocks fishing along 

 the sandy coasts of Aberdeenshire, just beyond, sometimes 

 amonsr, the breakers, seldom within shot from the shore. It 

 swims with moderate speed, dives expertly, and remains long 

 under water. It flies low, with considerable speed, alights 

 heavily on the water, and on rising from it ascends at a very 

 small angle, splashing with the tips of its wings. It is seldom 

 that any are shot along the east coast of Scotland, insomuch 

 that a specimen, obtained at St. Cyrus, and preserved in the 

 Montrose Museum, was considered there, when it was shown 

 to me, as a great rarity. During winter it occurs in the Firth 

 of Forth, but not plentifully, though sometimes considerable 

 numbers are seen. It is said to be abundant on some parts 

 of the coasts of England. In Ireland, also, it " is a regular 

 visitant to certain localities on the coast." Although some 

 individuals have been seen there in summer, it is truly mig- 

 rant, leaving us for the north in April, and even in Orkney 

 and Shetland is not known to breed. 



Very abundant in winter along the coasts of France and 

 Holland, w^here it is shot and otherwise procured in great 

 numbers ; it is said to be in summer dispersed over the north- 

 ern parts of Europe and Asia. The American Scoter, Oidemia 

 Americana, between which and the European I cannot dis- 

 cover any essential difierence, after examining several speci- 

 mens of both, is represented as abundant along the eastern 

 coast in winter, and as breeding in Labrador and more 

 northern tracts. Mr. Audubon's account of it is as follows : — 

 " On the 11th of July, 1833, a nest of this bird was found by 

 my young companions in Labrador. It was placed at the 

 distance of about two yards from the margin of a large fresh- 

 water pond, about a mile from the shore of the Gulf of St. 

 Laurence, under a low fir, in the manner often adopted by 

 the Eider Duck, the nest of w^hicli it somewhat resembled, 

 although it was much smaller. It was composed externally 

 of small sticks, moss, and grasses, lined with down, in smaller 

 quantity than that found in the nest of the bird just mentioned. 



