45'*^ SURF-SCOTER. 



M. Barrington recorded (Zool. 1889, p. 32) the capture of a female 

 or young male in Crookhaven Harbour, co. Cork, on November 5th 

 1888. 



This species has occurred once in the Faeroes, and several times 

 in Swedish Lapland, as well as at Aland in the Baltic ; a bird killed 

 off Heligoland is in the collection of Mr. Gatke, and many examples 

 have been obtained in various winters along the north coast of 

 France. To Greenland the Surf-Scoter is only a straggler. During 

 the summer it is found throughout America to the north of about 

 lat. 45°, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; and in the cold season it 

 descends to Lower California and the Great Lakes, following the 

 eastern sea-board as far as Florida, and occasionally visiting the 

 Bermudas, or even Jamaica. 



The nest is usually built on the margin of a lake, or concealed 

 beneath the lower branches of a stunted pine-tree ; and the eggs, 

 from 6-8 in number, laid in the latter part of June, are of an 

 ivory-white colour: average measurements 2-3 by i'6 in. The food 

 consists chiefly of small bivalves, for which the bird dives with great 

 assiduity amidst the tumbling surf to which it is partial ; while it 

 seldom, if ever, visits inland or sheltered waters. Exceptionally, 

 the Surf-Scoter has been known to fly against the lanterns of light- 

 houses in America. By the gunners and fishermen in New England 

 it is, like many other Sea-Ducks, known as ' Coot,' with such distin- 

 guishing prefixes as ' skunk-headed,' ' hollow-billed,' or ' spectacled.' 



The adult male has the general plumage deep black, the under 

 parts somewhat sooty in their tint ; on the forehead a broad patch 

 of white, with another of the same colour on the nape ; bill chiefly 

 orange-red — deeper above the nostrils — with a square patch of black 

 on each side of the upper mandible ; iris straw-yellow ; legs and feet 

 orange-red, webs dark olive. Length 21 in. ; wing 9*5 in. The 

 female differs in having the plumage of a dull brown colour, lightest 

 about the cheeks — on which two white spots are sometimes pre- 

 sent — and on the under parts, while the white patch on the nape 

 is less defined ; bill dark olive ; legs and toes yellowish-orange, webs 

 greyish-brown. In the young the white patches on the cheeks are 

 said to be more pronounced than in the adult female, but there is 

 great individual variation in the plumage of this species. An albino 

 has been recorded by Dr. C. Hart Merriam. 



