598 GAVIA RIDIBUNDA. 



A single Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus, sailed 

 quietly along at a considerable boight, and now numerous 

 groups of tbe " Black-beaded Gulls," at tbis season of the year, 

 however, unhooded, danced buoyantly and gaily at tbe 

 distance of a few yards from the water, often wheeling, and 

 occasionally stooping to pick up some small fish. 



The tide was rising, and almost all the birds were advanc- 

 ing in the same direction, toward the entrance of the inner 

 firtli or estuary. Passing Kinghorn, and entering the Bay 

 of Kirkaldy, we found the number of Guillemots and Auks 

 diminished, while the Gulls had disappeared ; but here vast 

 numbers of Velvet Ducks, Oidomia fusca, were dispersed over 

 the waters in groups of from two to fifteen or twenty. In a 

 flock that rose before us, however, I counted thirty- eight indi- 

 viduals. These birds, on account of their black colour and 

 large size, have a remarkable appearance, which is rendered 

 still more so when they are on wing, as then the white patch 

 across that organ becomes exceedingly conspicuous. They 

 swim lightly, and fly with moderate speed, at the height of 

 three or four feet. In rising from the water, they ascend 

 very gradually, striking it with their wings along a distance 

 of two or three yards, and in alighting they settle as it were 

 upon their hinder part, and then fall forward. Interspersed 

 among them, in smaller numbers, w^ere groups of the Black 

 Duck, Oidemia nigra, a species very similar, but inferior in 

 size, and destitute of white on the wing. It exhibited pre- 

 cisely the same modes of flying and swimming. A shot fired 

 by a person on board at the Ducks started from a rock off" 

 Seafield Tower a large flock of Turnstones, Strepsilas collaris, 

 and from another in its vicinity a smaller flock of what 

 seemed to be Dunlins, Tringa alpina. Finally, on approach- 

 ing the harbour of Kirkaldy, we saw a single beautiful Long- 

 tailed Duck, Anas glacialis. 



Having walked to Queensferry, we were pleased to hear 

 in the dusk the Black-headed Gulls screaming out their 

 peculiar cry of kree, kree, krck, at a distance. Next morn- 

 ing, on going to the pier, we saw vast numbers of Gulls 

 congregated on the water in the eddies along the shore. At 

 eleven o'clock we went on board the steamer from Newhaven 



