603 BRITISH BIRDS. 



FULIGULA NIGRA. 



COMMON SCOTER. 



(Plate 65.) 



Anas nigia, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 420 (1760) ; Linn. Si/st. Nat. i. p. 196 (1766) ; et 

 auctorum plurimorum — Gnielin, Latham, TemmincTc, {Bonaparte), {Dresser), 

 {Saunders), &c. 



Anas cinerascens, Bechst. Orn. Taschenh. ii. p. 457 (1803). 



Oidemia nigra {Briss.), Flem. Phil. Zool. ii. p. 260 (1822). 



Melanitta nigi-a {Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 504. 



Platypus niger {Linn.), Brehm, Lehrb. Naturg. eur. Vog. ii. p. 820 (1824). 



Anas atra, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. ii. p. 247 (1826). 



Fuligula nigra {Linn.), Degl. Orn. Eur. ii. p. 470 (1849). 



The Common Scoter^ more frequently called the Black Scoter, is one of 

 the best kuo^vn of the Sea-Ducks that visit our islands every winter. It 

 frequents most parts of the coast of the British Islands, including the 

 Shetlands and the Hebrides. It is said to be rare in the south of Ireland, 

 but in the north of that country it abounds in thousands. It has not been 

 known to breed in England or Ireland, but occasional pairs do so in 

 various parts of Scotland, in Sutherlandshire and Invcrncss-shire. 



The Common Scoter is probably a circumpolar bird, though it has not 

 been recorded from East Siberia or Greenland, and American examples 

 are regarded as suhspecifically distinct from those of the Old World under 

 the name of Fuligula nigra americana *. They only differ in the colour of 

 the bill : in both forms the centre of the upper mandible is orange ; in 

 the American form the tubercle at the base of the bill is also orange, but 

 in the European form it is black. 



The breeding-range of the European form of the Common Scoter extends 

 from Iceland through Northern Europe and West Siberia to the Taimur 

 peninsula. It is a more northern species than the Velvet Scoter, breeding 

 Irom lat. 74° down to the Arctic circle, below which it is rarely found ex- 

 cept at a high elevation. In winter it is only known Avith certainty to occur 

 in the Baltic and on the coasts of Western Eurojie, occasionally straying 

 as far south as the Azores and the Mediterranean. Pallas records it from 



* The sj-nonymy of the American form is as follows : — 



Oidemia americana, Sioainson Sf Rich. Faun. Bor.-Amer. ii, p. 450 (1831). 

 Fuligula (Oidemia) americana {Swains.), Nutt. Man. Orn. ii. p. 422 (1834). 

 Fuligula americana {Swains.), And. Orn. Biogr. v. p. 117, pi. 408 (1839). 

 ffidemia americana {Swains.), Cones, Key N.-Amer. B. p. 293 (1872). 



