DUCKS. 67 
VELVET SCOTER. Cdemia fusca (Linneus). 
A rare winter visitant. Mr. J. H. Gurney thinks 
it appears rarer than it really is, from its habit of 
keeping out some miles at sea. 
In Orkney it seems to be an annual winter visitant. 
Messrs. Baikie and Heddle remark* that it arrives in 
September and October, remaining until the spring, 
and frequenting the bays and firths in flocks generally 
of from ten to twenty. 
EIDER DUCK. Somateria mollissima (Linnzeus). 
Resident in Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, the 
coasts of Scotland, and the coast of Northumberland, 
occasionally migrating as far south as the English 
Channel. The southernmost breeding-station is be- 
lieved to be Coquet Island. 
SMEW. WMergus albellus, Linneus. 
A winter visitant, but not numerous, and never seen 
in large flocks like many of the other Ducks. 
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Mergus serrator, Lin- 
nus. 
Resident in Scotland and Ireland, where it breeds 
on the small islands in the lakes; a winter visitant 
to England. Mr. J. H. Gurney informs me that he 
once saw an adult male of this species in summer near 
Lowestoft. 
* Hist. Nat. Orcadensis (1848), p. 79. 
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