DUCKS. i6i 



COMMON SCOTER. (Edemia nigra, (L.) 



YarreU,\Y. p, 472; Harting, p. 66; Dresser, vi. p. 663; Ibis 

 List, p. 135 ; Fuligula nigra, Seeholim, iii. p. 602. 



The "Black Duck," as it is locally called, is a 

 common winter visitant, and often seen in flocks off 

 the coast, as well as in the estuaries. It especially 

 affects the rocky coast at Kimmeridge. In the 

 winter of 1863, after a severe gale, Mr. H. Symmonds 

 rode one down at Milborne St. Andrew's, which is 

 not less than sixteen miles from the sea. In 1881 

 one was shot at Swanage. 



VELVET SCOTER. (Edemia fusca, L. 



Yarrell, iv, p. 476; Harting, p. 67 ; Dresser, vi. p. 657; Ibis 

 List, p. 135; Fuligula fusca, Seehohm, iii. p. 605; Anas 

 fusca, Pidleneg's List, p. 20. 



The Velvet Scoter, which may always be known 

 from the preceding species by the white bar across 

 the wing and a spot of the same colour near the eye, 

 is an accidental visitor to our coast in winter, mixinsr 

 with the Common Scoter in the proportion of not 

 more than one in twenty, Pulteney says of it : — 

 *' This Duck is seldom seen in Dorset ; a female was 

 shot on the Stour near Blandford." The late Mr. 

 W. Thompson of Weymouth saw one at a poulterer's 

 shop in Poole, January 5, 1856, which had been shot 

 in the harbour. Another was procured in Portland 

 Eoads, February 2, 1869. Colonel Hawker, in his 

 " Instructions to Young Sportsmen," states that he 



