108 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



from the end of October until the middle or end of 

 April. Gatcombe noticed that Scoters usually 

 appeared in Plymouth Sound when the wind was 

 easterly. 



VELVET ^COT'EK—CEdemiafusca (Linn.) 



A RARE winter visitant, occasionally visiting the 

 north and south coasts of the county. Mr. Cecil 

 Smith records a Velvet Scoter shot in Bideford Bay 

 in 1882 (Zool. 1885 p. 4). Mr. H. Nicholls obtained 

 a female bird on the Kingsbridge estuary. A fine 

 adult male and two females were shot in Torbay in 

 November, 1869 (Zool. 1870, p. 1983). In 1879, 

 another was shot in Plymouth Sound (Zool. 1879 

 p. 206). Mr. Taylor records a seventh specimen, 

 shot in the Estuary of the Exe (Zool. 1888, p. 426), 



SURF ^COT'E.E.—CEdemia perspicillata (Linn.) 



A RARE visitant. Mr. F. Pershouse has written to 

 tell me of an immature Surf Scoter, shot in Torbay 

 in 1860. In answer to further enquiry, Mr. 

 Pershouse kindly replies, " The immature specimen 

 of the Surf Scoter was in the collection of the late 

 Mr. J. C. Hele of Newton Abbot. Mr. Hele 

 purchased it from Mr. Burt, then Curator of the 

 Museum (Mr. Burt has been dead several years). 

 At Mr. Hole's death his collection of Birds was sold 

 by public auction. I quite intended to secure the 

 specimen but, thinking there would be no one at 



