47°. SURF-SCOTER. 



CO. Dublin, in October 1880; and Mr. R. M. Barrington recorded 

 (Zool. 1889, p. 32) the capture of a female or young male in Crook- 

 haven Harbour, co. Cork, on November 5th 1888. Mr. J. R. 

 Sheridan seems to have obtained a female off Achill Island ; and 

 Mr. R. \Varren has described (Zool. 1897, p. 84) the capture of a 

 male and a female in the estuary of the Moy. 



This species has occurred once in the Faeroes, once in Norway, 

 several times in Swedish Lapland, and once in the Gulf of Bothnia ; 

 a bird killed off Heligoland is in the Gatke collection, and many 

 examples have been obtained in various winters along the north 

 coast of France. To Greenland the Surf-Scoter is only a straggler, 

 and it is also rare in the extreme north-east of Siberia. Throughout 

 America to the north of about lat. 45°, it is found during summer 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; while in the cold season it visits 

 Lower California and the Great Lakes, follows the eastern sea-board 

 as far as Florida, and occasionally reaches the Bermudas and Jamaica. 



The nest is usually built on the margin of a lake, or concealed 

 beneath the lower branches of a stunted pine-tree ; and the eggs, 

 from 6-8 in number, laid in the latter part of June, are of an ivory- 

 white colour: measurements 2*3 by i"6 in. The food consists 

 chiefly of small bivalves, for which the bird dives with great 

 assiduity amidst the tumbling surf to which it is partial ; while it 

 seldom, if ever, visits inland or sheltered waters. Exceptionally, 

 the Surf-Scoter has been known to fly against the lanterns of light- 

 houses in America. By the gunners and fishermen in New 

 England it is, like many other Sea-Ducks, known as " Coot," with 

 such distinguishing prefixes as "skunk-headed," "hollow-billed," or 

 " spectacled." 



The adult male has the general plumage deep black, the under 

 parts somewhat sooty in their tint ; on the forehead a broad patch 

 of white, with another of the same colour on the nape ; bill chiefly 

 orange-red — deeper above the nostrils — with a square patch of black 

 on each side of the upper mandible ; iris straw-yellow ; legs and feet 

 orange-red, webs dark olive. Length 21 in. ; wing 9-5 in. The 

 female differs in having the plumage of a dull brown colour, which is 

 lightest about the cheeks — on which two white spots are sometimes 

 present — and on the under parts, while the white patch on the nape 

 is less defined ; bill dark olive ; legs and toes yellowish-orange, webs 

 greyish-brown. Li the young the white patches on the cheeks are 

 said to be more pronounced than in the adult female, but there is 

 great individual variation in the plumage of this species. An albino 

 has been recorded by Dr. C. Hart Merriam. 



