ANATID.B. 



465 



THE COMMON SCOTER. 

 CEdemia nigra (Linnsus). 



A comparatively small number of immature Common or Black 

 Scoters may be observed on our coasts during the entire summer, 

 but the autumn and winter months are those in which this species 

 is really abundant, and nowhere more so than along the eastern 

 side of Great Britain. At times its flocks almost blacken the sea 

 between this country and Holland, while they are also very plenti- 

 ful in the English Channel ; but not many enter the bays, except 

 in coarse weather, though storm-driven birds occasionally take 

 refuge on inland waters. On the coast of Wales, as well as in the 

 west of England and Scotland, the Scoter is less plentiful, except on 

 the shallows of Morecambe Bay and on the Solway, where thousands 

 are sometimes seen ; it is comparatively rare in the Hebrides, except 

 at Tiree, where it bred in 1897 ; and it is not numerous in the 

 Orkneys or the Shetlands. In spring the majority take their depar- 

 ture for the north of Europe, but a few remain to breed in Caith- 

 ness, Sutherland, and the north-west of Rosshire. In Ireland the 

 species is abundant every winter on the marine loughs from Dundalk 

 northward, and south-westward to Connaught, but in the south it is 

 comparatively uncommon. 



The Scoter visits the F?eroes and nests sparingly in Iceland, while 

 it is generally distributed during summer in the northern portions 

 of Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia as far as the Taimyr and 



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