500 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
reddish brown; the lesser wing-coverts dull brown, 
slightly margined with pale brown; the greater wing- 
coverts are tipped with white; tertials dusky brown, 
margined with white; the chin and throat rather 
paler than the head; breast, flanks and under tail- 
coverts dull yellowish brown, some of the feathers 
margined with a paler shade; belly yellowish white. 
The eggs are said to be smaller than those of the 
Wild Duck, and of a rich creamy white colour. 
Common Scorer, Oidemia nigra. ‘The Common 
Scoter is by no means so numerous on our coast as 
it is on the south coast of Devon, where I have seen 
it in the Jate autumn in very large flocks: it remains 
on that coast all through the winter, and I have seen 
an occasional one as late in the spring as May. 
I have never myself seen this bird on our Somer- 
setshire coast, the Scaup Duck, which appears to 
ine much more common there, being generally called 
the “ Black Duck.” I have, however, seen a few 
specimens at Mrs. Turle’s, which had been shot in 
the neighbourhood of Burnham. Montagu says of 
it, “‘ Mr. Anstice informs us that the Scoter 1s occa- 
sionally taken in the river Brue, near Bridgwater, in 
Somersetshire, in the winter, but more commonly in 
the moulting season, having cast so many feathers of 
their wings as to render them incapable of flight: in 
this state they frequently get within the nets in 
shallow water, are surrounded at the ebbing tide, and 
cannot escape.” Some of those I shot on the south 
