124 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and Marthas Vineyard, these mollusks are particularly abundant, and conse- 

 quently we find more of the scoters in those localities than on any other part 

 of the coast or perhaps than on all the rest of the coast combined. 



E. H. Forbush (1912) writes: 



Its food consists largely of mussels, and when feeding on fresh water it 

 prefers the Unios or fresh-water clams to most other foods. Thirteen Massa- 

 chusetts specimens were found to have eaten nearly 95 per cent of mussels ; 

 the remaining 5 per cent of the stomach contents was composed of starfish and 

 periwinkles. It is a common belief that all scoters feed entirely upon animal 

 food, but this is not a fact. Along the Atlantic coast they appear to subsist 

 mostly on marine animals, but, in the interior, vegetable food also is taken. 

 Mr. W. L. McAtee found the scoters in a Wisconsin lake living almost ex- 

 clusively for a time on the wild celery, but he does not state definitely what 

 species of scoter was represented there. 



Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899) says that, while on the lakes and 

 ponds of the interior, this species eats minnows and small fish, slugs, 

 and snails, larvae of insects, fish spawn, crawfish, small frogs, and 

 polliwogs; also a variety of vegetable food such as duckweed, pond- 

 vreed, flags, water milfoil, bladderwort, and several other water 

 plants. Probably the young are fed largely on insect food. 



Behavior. — The American scoter is not easily recognized in flight ; 

 its size, shape, gait, and general appearance are all much like those 

 of the surf scoter, from which only the adult males can be distin- 

 guished by the head and bill markings at short range; the females 

 and young of these two species can not be distinguished in life at any 

 considerable distance, and many gunners do not recognize them in 

 the hand. Its flight is not quite so heavy as that of the white-winged 

 scoter. All the scoters fly more swiftly than they appear to be going, 

 but at nothing like the speed at which they have been reported to 

 fly ; I doubt if they ever fly at over 60 miles an hour or even attain 

 that speed except under the most favorable circumstances. Migrat- 

 ing flocks in the fall usually fly high in fair weather.; but in stormy 

 or very windy weather the flocks sweep along close to the water and 

 usually well in shore, following the indentations of the coast line 

 and seldom flying over the land, except on their occasional visits to 

 inland ponds. The flocks vary greatly in size and form, some are 

 great irregular masses or bunches, others are strung out in long- 

 straight or curving lines, and sometimes they form in more or less 

 regular V or U shapes. The wings make a whistling sound in flight, 

 which the gunners imitate to attract the attention of passing flocks. 



All the scoter^ are strong, fast, and tireless swimmers, either on 

 the surface or below it ; they dive quickly and neatly and can remain 

 under water for a long time. Mr. Mackay (1891) writes: 



In these shallow waters the tide runs rapidly over the shoal ground and 

 sweeps the scoters away from where they wish to feed, thus necessitating their 

 flying back again to it ; consequently there is at such times a continual move- 

 ment among them as they are feeding. When wounded and closely pursued, 



