ANATID^:. 



45: 



THE SURF-SCOTER. 



OEde.mia perspicillata (Linnaeus). 



The Surf-Scoter is a North American bird which has not unfre- 

 quently wandered to our coasts — especially to the western side, where 

 the influence of the Gulf Stream predominates. Its occurrence was 

 first recorded by Blyth in 1838; and since that year two examples 

 have been obtained near Weymouth, one in Cornwall, two in the 

 Scilly Islands, one off Lytham in Lancashire on December 9th 1S82, 

 one at Crofton in Cumberland, one near Stornoway in the Hebrides 

 during the winter of 1S65, and one in the F'nth of Forth in 1852 

 Between autumn and spring its favourite haunts appear to be in 

 the Orkneys, where at least six specimens have been obtained 

 during the last twenty years, while a far larger number have been 

 identified by thoroughly competent observers. In the Shetlands 

 it has not yet been procured, but Robert Dunn has stated that he 

 made unavailing attempts to get within shot of a male in Roeness 

 Voe in June 1847. In Ireland several were seen on Belfast Lough 

 during September 1846, one of them being now in the museum of 

 that town; and a bird was obtained at Clontarf, co. Dublin, in 

 October 1880. While this was passing through the i)ress, Mr. R. 



