Biological Papers. 311 



A NEW BIRD FOR THE KANSAS LIST, TAKEN AT 

 LAWRENCE. 



By L. L. Dyche, University of Kansas. Lawrence. 



\ T THE twenty-first annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of 

 -^^^ Science, which was held at Leavenworth, November 1 and 2, 

 1888, both Col. N. S. Goss and Dr. F. H. Snow reported the surf- 

 scoter, (Edernia perspiGillata, as occurring in Kansas for the first 

 time. The single specimen to which they referred was taken Oc- 

 tober 29. 1887, above the Lawrence dam, by Mr. A. L. Bennett, a 

 student of the writer at that time. 



On October 24, 1908, just twenty-one years later, another scoter 

 was secured above the Lawrence dam, by Mr. George Weyermiller. 

 This specimen proved to be a young female American scoter, 

 (Edemia americana. Just one week later, Mr. Edward E. Brown, 

 of the University of Kansas, shot another specimen of the same 

 species, at Lake View, about five miles northwest of Lawrence. 

 Each of the above specimens was alone when killed. Both birds 

 have been mounted by Mr. Alex. Wetmore, a museum assistant of 

 the writer, and added to the University bird collections. 



The American scoter is found throughout about the same regions 

 as the surf-scoter and the white- winged scoter. The scoters belong 

 for the most part to the northern part of the North American con- 

 tinent They especially occur in the neighborhood of Newfound- 

 land, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. In winter 

 these birds are common on the Atlantic coast, and individuals are 

 said to wander as far south as Florida. 



The American scoter also lives and breeds on the Behring Sea 

 coast of Alaska and adjacent islands and territory. Stragglers have 

 been picked up in a number of the northern and north-central 

 states and as far south as Lawrence, Kan. 



The scoters are mollusk-eating ducks and are not considered a 

 very good table bird. The writer knows from his own dissections 

 that they eat fish; and the meat of specimens killed in Alaska was 

 so strongly tainted with fish that no member of my party, except 

 the Indians, could eat it. 



