484 ANATIDiE. 



males, obtained at the mouth of the Somme in various 

 winters between 1869 and 1879. 



In Greenland the Surf Scoter has been obtained, as a 

 straggler, on both the east and the west coasts ; but its 

 home is in the northern regions of America, its summer 

 range extending to the shores of the Arctic sea where 

 Richardson found it breeding. It nests on the lakes and 

 ponds of the interior of Newfoundland, and in the Province 

 of Quebec ; Audubon, as hereafter mentioned, found it 

 breeding in Labrador ; it remains in the Hudson's Bay 

 districts as long as the waters remain unfrozen ; Mr. Mac- 

 Farlane found it nesting in considerable numbers on the 

 Lower Anderson River ; and it also breeds on the Mackenzie 

 and the Yukon, as well as in Alaska and Sitka. On the 

 Pacific side it is known to occur in winter along the coast 

 as far as Lower California ; Mr. E. W. Nelson mentions 

 it as a common winter resident on Lake Michigan ; and 

 it also visits other inland waters down to Ohio. Along 

 the Atlantic seaboard the Surf Scoter is common from 

 September to April, its presence depending as much upon 

 the abundance of its food as upon the severity of the 

 weather. By gunners and fishermen in New England it is 

 known as the ' Skunk-head Coot ' and the ' Hollow-billed 

 Coot ' ; and at Long Island as the ' Spectacled Coot ' ; the 

 latter word comprising many species of Sea Ducks. South- 

 wards it has been found as far as Florida; on three occasions 

 it has straggled to Bermuda ; and it is mentioned by Gosse 

 and March as a visitor to Jamaica. 



A portion of Audubon's account is as follows: — "While 

 proceeding towards the sterile country of Labrador, in 

 1833, I found the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence alive 

 with Ducks of different species. The nearer we approached 

 the coast, the more numerous did they become ; and of 

 the many kinds that presented themselves, the Surf Duck 

 was certainly not the least numerous. It is true that 

 in the noble bays of our own coast, in the Sound, between 

 New York and the Hook, on the broader waters of the 

 Chesapeake, and beyond them to the mouths of the Missis- 



