ANATID/^.. 



45: 



THE COMMON SCOTER. 

 CEdemia nigra (Linnaeus). 



A comparatively small number of immature Common or Black 

 Scoters may be observed on our coasts during the entire summer, 

 but the autumn and winter months are those in which this species 

 is abundant, and nowhere more so than along the eastern side of 

 Great Britain. At times its flocks blacken the sea between this 

 country and Holland, and are also very plentiful throughout 

 the English Channel ; not many enter the bays, e.xcept in coarse 

 weather, though storm-driven birds occasionally take refuge on 

 inland waters. On the west coast of P^ngland and Scotland 

 it is less plentiful, except on the shallow waters of More- 

 cambe Bay in Lancashire, and on the SoKvay, where thousands are 

 sometimes seen. In spring the majority take their departure for 

 the north of Europe, but a i&\\ remain to breed in Caithness, 

 Sutherland, and the north-west of Rosshire. In Ireland it abounds 

 every winter on the northern marine loughs, especially near Belfast 

 and Dundalk, but in the south and west it is comparatively un- 

 common. 



The Scoter visits the Faeroes and nests sparingly in Iceland, while 

 in the northern portions of Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia as far 

 as the Boganida, it is generally distributed during the summer. 

 Along the Atlantic sea-board of Europe it is of regular occurrence 

 in winter, reaching as far to the south-west as the Azores, and niso 



