814 THE SURF SCOTER. 
and seek the safety of open water. The wiser birds defer flight till well after 
dark, when law-abiding gunners have gone home. During the passage of the 
sand-spit the unhappy birds are subjected to a grilling fire, but none think of 
rising above danger. The path of the first flock determines the point at which 
others will follow for the remainder of the evening. It is as tho the word had 
been passed around that the passage would be attempted at a certain point that 
night, and successive platoons obey the general order in spite of persecution. 
The flight is greatly quickened as the spit is approached, and should a flock of 
experienced birds discover the gunner ahead of them, they do not tower or 
swerve, but each in his course begins a frantic wriggling and twisting, achiev- 
ing thus a sort of cork-serew motion, which is really very effective in upsetting 
the gunner’s calculations. In spite of the grim tragedy of the thing it is laugh- 
able to see the birds perform in this way, like schoolboys before the uplifted lash. 
Mr. Bowles writes me that when a migrating flock of Scoters essays to 
pass a boat at too great a height, say two hundred yards, a violent banging of 
the oars on the side of the boat will cause the whole flock to tumble out of the 
sky into easy gun-shot. The cause of this phenomenon is not easily found. 
While the eggs of this Scoter have never been taken in Washington, it is 
possible that a few breed here in the vicinity of the interior lakes. They are 
late breeders; and the nest is a flimsy affair, a mere depression in the earth 
scratched in a weed-patch or under a bush and marked by a few weed-stems 
and grasses. Eggs, of a pinkish flesh-color, are laid at the rate of one per day, 
and incubation is not undertaken until the set of a dozen or so is complete. 
Prior to absenting herself each day, the female plucks down from her breast 
to cover her eggs and scrapes leaves and trash over the whole. The male bird 
loses interest in family affairs when his mate is started on her long vigil, and 
he goes in for club-life at the seaside instead. The chicks make their appear- 
ance in due season, and require zealous attention from their mother until such 
time as they may be large enough to walk, or fly, to the ocean. 
No. 329. 
SURF SCOTER. 
A. O. U. No. 166. Oidemia perspicillata (Linn.). 
Synonyms.—Svurr Duck. Sra Coot. Squaw Duck (Ete. as in preceding 
species ). 
Description.—Adu/t male; A triangular patch on nape and a rounded patch 
on forehead between eyes, shining white; remaining plumage glossy black, duller 
below; frontal extension of feathers reaching nearly to nostril; bill swollen at 
base and singularly variegated in hue, pinkish white on sides, upon which a sharply 
defined squarish patch of black, a line of brilliant carmine between this patch and 
