THE WHITE-WINGED SCOTER. . 617 
it is difficult to recall it as anything but a sea-bird. My own memory is quite 
crowded with visions of a long black line of the coveted birds bobbing and 
diving in serene content, always at a distance of a gun-shot and a quarter 
from the edge of the lapping tide. 
The Scoters are clumsy about getting to wing, and accomplish the feat 
only after much noisy flapping, during which the bird’s head is brought down 
as if it were trying to get hold of its own boot-straps; but once going it moves 
with great 
swiftness, and 
since it is a 
heavy bird, ac- 
quires a con- 
siderable mo- 
mentum. I 
shall not soon 
forget a win- 
ter afternoon 
Gm IP wise 
Sound, when 
two of us 
crouched be-- 
hind drift logs 
on the neck of 
a long sand- 
spit, which en- 
closes the Taken in Ottawa County. Photo by Claude Bucher. 
teeming wa- A GOOD PLACE FOR SEA DUCKS. 
ters of Sem- 
iahmoo Bay. ‘The Scoters had been feeding upon the bay at high tide 
in immense numbers, but at nightfall they began to retire across the neck 
to the open sea. On they came by little squads, hundreds of them, moving 
like volleys of cannon balls, and clearing the brief stretch of land with a 
wing-rush which tried the tense nerves to the utmost. Bang! Bang! went 
the guns, and the birds which acknowledged the salute (not all were polite) 
grounded on the beach beyond with a thud like an aerolite,—at least so it 
seemed to excited senses. 
This species has not been much observed in Ohio, but it should be found 
sparingly on Lake Erie, and occasionally at the reservoirs, both during migra- 
tions and in winter. ‘To the four records given by Professor Jones I am 
able to add only one, that of a male taken in the fall of 1881 upon the grounds 
of the Wynous Point Shooting Club, and preserved in their collection. 
