8i8 SCOUTI-ALLEN—SCRABER 



distinct genus, (Eclemia (often misspelt Oidemia) — a name coined in 

 reference to the swollen appearance of the base of the bill. The 

 Scoter is also very generally known around the British coasts as 

 the "Black Duck," from the male being, with the exception of a 

 stripe of orange ^ that runs down the ridge of the bill, wholly of 

 that colour. In the representative American form, Qi. americana, 

 the protuberance at the base of the bill, black in the European 

 bird, is orange as well. Of all Ducks the Scoter has perhaps the most 

 marine habits, keeping the sea in all weathers, and rarely resorting 

 to land except for the purpose of breeding. Even in summer small 

 flocks of Scoters may generally be seen in the tideway at the mouth 

 of any of the larger British rivers or in mid-channel, while in 

 autumn and winter these flocks are so increased as to number 

 thousands of individuals, and the water often looks black with 

 them. A second species, the Velvet - Duck, CE. fusca, of much 

 larger size, distinguished by a white spot under each eye and a 

 white bar on each wing, is far less abundant than the former, but 

 examples of it are occasionally to be seen in company with the 

 commoner one, and it too has its American counterpart, CE. 

 velvetina ; while a third, known only to Europe as a straggler, the 

 Surf-Duck, (E. perspicillata, with a white patch on the crown and 

 another on the nape, and a curiously-shaped and particoloured bill, 

 is a not uncommon bird in North- American waters. All the species 

 of CEdemia, like most of our other Sea-Ducks, have their true home 

 in arctic or subarctic countries, but the Scoter itself is said to breed 

 in Scotland (Zool. 1869, p. 1867; Vert. Faun. Sutherl. &c. pp. 

 194, 195). The females display little of the deep sable hue that 

 characterizes their partners, but are attired in soot-colour, varied, 

 especially beneath, with brownish white. The flesh of all these 

 birds has an exceedingly strong taste, and, after much controversy, 

 Avas allowed by the ecclesiastical authorities to rank as fish in the 

 dietary (c/. Graindorge, TraiU de I'origine des Macreuses, Caen : 

 1680; and Correspondence of JoKn Bay, Eay Soc. ed. p. 148). 



SCOUTI-ALLEN, variously spelt, a name in Orkney for the 

 Arctic Gull (Skua).2 



SCRABER (Gael. Sgrab), a name given in St. Kilda to the 

 DOVEKEY (Martin, St. K. p. 58) ; but said to be used in the other 

 Hebrides for the Manx Shearwater, which is possibly the more 



1 This varies mucli in extent (J. H. Gurney, Zool. 1894, pp. 292-295). 



"■^ The allied species known to English ornithologists as Buffon's Skua is 

 commonly called Skaiti by Lapps and Qusens in Fiumark, and the subjacent 

 parts of Finland and Sweden, though I have not found that word in any printed 

 book, and know not whether it can have any connexion with the Orcadian name. 

 We are told, and doubtless rightly, that Scandinavian words beginning with »S'^ 

 lose the S when adopted by Finns ; but for all that I have heard this uttered 

 many times and seen it in manuscript still oftener. 



