818 SCOUTI-ALLEN—SCRABER 
distinct genus, @demia (often misspelt Oidemia)—a name coined in 
reference to the swollen appearance of the base of the bill. The 
Scoter is also very generally known around the British coasts as 
the “ Black Duck,” from the male being, with the exception of a 
stripe of orange! that runs down the ridge of the bill, wholly of 
that colour. In the representative American form, GZ. americana, 
the protuberance at the base of the bill, black in the European 
bird, is orange as well. Of all Ducks the Scoter has perhaps the most 
marine habits, keeping the sea in all weathers, and rarely resorting 
to land except for the purpose of breeding. Even in summer small 
flocks of Scoters may generally be seen in the tideway at the mouth 
of any of the larger British rivers or in mid-channel, while in 
autumn and winter these flocks are so increased as to number 
thousands of individuals, and the water often looks black with 
them. <A second species, the Velvet- Duck, @. fusca, of much 
larger size, distinguished by a white spot under each eye and a 
white bar on each wing, is far less abundant than the former, but 
examples of it are occasionally to be seen in company with the 
commoner one, and it too has its American counterpart, @. 
velvetina ; while a third, known only to Europe as a straggler, the 
Surf-Duck, @. perspicillata, with a white patch on the crown and 
another on the nape, and a curiously-shaped and particoloured bill, 
is a not uncommon bird in North-American waters. All the species 
of Gdemia, like most of our other Sea-Ducks, have their true home 
in arctic or subarctic countries, but the Scoter itself is said to breed 
in Scotland (Zool. 1869, p. 1867; Vert. Faun. Sutherl. &c. pp. 
194, 195). The females display little of the deep sable hue that 
characterizes their partners, but are attired in soot-colour, varied, 
especially beneath, with brownish white. The flesh of all these 
birds has an exceedingly strong taste, and, after much controversy, 
was allowed by the ecclesiastical authorities to rank as fish in the 
dietary (cf. Graindorge, Traité de Vorigine des Macreuses, Caen: 
1680; and Correspondence of John Ray, Ray Soc. ed. p. 148). 
SCOUTI-ALLEN, variously spelt, a name in Orkney for the 
Arctic Gull (SxkuA).? 
SCRABER (Gael. Sgrab), a name given in St. Kilda to the 
DovEKEY (Martin, Si. K. p. 58); but said to be used in the other 
Hebrides for the Manx SHEARWATER, which is possibly the more 
1 This varies much in extent (J. H. Gurney, Zool. 1894, pp. 292-295). 
* The allied species known to English ornithologists as Buffon’s Skua is 
commonly called Skaiti by Lapps and Quens in Finmark, and the subjacent 
parts of Finland and Sweden, though I have not found that word in any printed 
book, and know not whether it can have any connexion with the Orcadian name. 
We are told, and doubtless rightly, that Scandinavian words beginning with Sk 
lose the S when adopted by Finns; but for all that I have heard this uttered 
many times and seen it in manuscript still oftener. 
