SCOBB Y—SCOTER 817 
flights, in which all will shoot rapidly upwards, making the strokes 
of their wings resound so as to be heard at a considerable distance. 
The same kind of behaviour has been observed in the allied J/. 
tyrannus, a more soberly -coloured and even longer -tailed bird, 
which, though properly a native of Central and pretty generally of 
South America, occasionally strays to the northern part of that 
continent, and has occurred more than once within the limits of the 
United States. Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. p. 161; Nat. in La 
Plata, pp. 271, 272) states that the birds of this species, though 
not gregarious, rise just before sunset to the tree-tops, and after 
calling to one another with loud and excited chirps, “mount 
upwards like rockets, to a great height in the air; then, after 
whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves 
downwards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their 
tails during their wild zigzag flight, and uttering a succession of 
sharp, grinding notes.” 
SCOBBY, a north-country name for the CHAFFINCH (p. 82). 
SCOLDER—perhaps from Icel. Skjéldr (¢f. SHELD-DRAKE), or 
possibly from Icel. Ljaldr; Feroese Zjaldur,—in Orkney a name 
for the OYSTER-CATCHER (p. 681); but, according to Mr. Trumbull 
(Names & Portr. B. p. 89), on the east coast of North America for 
the Long-tailed Duck (see HARELD, p. 406). 
SCOOPER, said to have been a local name for the AVOSET 
(p. 23). 
SCOTER, a word of doubtful origin, perhaps a variant of 
SCOUT—one of the many local names shared in common by the 
Scorer. Surr-Duck. 
(After Swainson. ) 
GUILLEMOT and the RAZORBILL,—or perhaps primarily connected 
with Coot,—the English name of the Anas nigra of Linneus, 
which with some allied species has been justifiably placed in a 
1 In the former case the derivation seems to be from the O. Fr. Escoute, and 
that from the Latin auscultare (cf. Skeat, Etymol. Dict. p. 533), but in the 
latter from the Dutch KAvet (Coor), which is said to be of Celtic extraction— 
Cwtiar (op. cit. p. 134). The French Macreuse, possibly from the Latin macer, 
indicating a bird that may be eaten in Lent or on the fast days of the Roman 
Church, is of double signification, meaning in the south of France a Coot and in 
the north a Scoter. By the wild-fowlers of parts of North America Scoters are 
commonly called Coots. 
