466 COMMON SCOTER. 



Boganida. When the Baltic is frozen it is found in vast flocks on 

 the coast of Friesland, and is hardly less numerous off Holland, 

 Belgium and Northern France. Along the Atlantic sea-board of 

 Europe it is of regular occurrence in winter, reaching as far to the 

 south-west as the Azores ; and it is also met with up the Mediter- 

 ranean as far as Tunisia, but is rare on the shores of Provence and 

 Italy. On the inland waters of the Continent it is less frequent 

 than the Velvet-Scoter, but it visits the Swiss lakes and appears to 

 cross the Alps to the Adriatic at intervals ; while an important line 

 of migration runs along the valley of the Volga to the Caspian, and 

 Canon Tristram found the species on the coast of Palestine in winter. 

 Throughout North America the representative is a closely-allied 

 species, ffi. americana, in which the entire protuberance at the 

 base of the bill is orange-yellow ; this form ranges across the Pacific 

 to Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, where it breeds, visiting Japan 

 and the Corea in winter. 



The nest, usually placed on an island in a fresh-water lake, or 

 among the heathery bogs in the vicinity, is composed of grass 

 and moss with a lining of down ; the eggs, laid during the first half 

 of June, are 6-9 in number, and yellowish-white in colour : measure- 

 ments 2*5 by I '8 in. The food consists chiefly of molluscs, which 

 the bird obtains by diving, and it generally approaches the shore 

 with each flood-tide for the purpose of satisfying its appetite ; the 

 flesh is oily and seldom eaten in this country. Like the rest of the 

 genus, the Common Scoter dives well, and remains a considerable 

 time under water. The call-note of the male during the breeding- 

 season is rendered by Faber as tii-tu-tu-tii, the female answering 

 with a harsh re-7-e-i'e-re-re. 



The adult male has the central ridge of the upper mandible 

 orange-yellow, the knob and the rest of the bill black ; irides dark 

 hazel ; upper plumage deep glossy-black, under surface duller ; legs, 

 toes and webs dusky-black. Length 20 in. ; wing 9 in. The female 

 has the crown and upper parts sooty-brown, the margins of the wing- 

 coverts a little lighter ; chin dirty white ; cheeks and sides of the 

 neck greyish-brown ; lower part of the neck, breast, abdomen, vent 

 and under tail-coverts dark brown ; no knob and no orange ridge on 

 the bill; legs and toes dusky-olive, webs almost black. Young birds 

 of the year, at the approach of their first winter, have the cheeks, 

 chin, sides and front of the neck dull greyish-white, while the under 

 surface of the body is mottled with white and brown. 



