VELVET SCOTER. :>,G1 



VELVET SCOTER. 



(Edemia fusca. 



The visits of this Duck to our coasts occur at the same 

 time as those of the Common Scoter, aud, though less abun- 

 dant and more local, the habits of the two species seem 

 to me identical, except that the Velvet is much the wilder 

 of the two, and appears in smaller flocks. According to 

 Yarrell (B. B. vol. iv. p. 479), it frequents, and breeds on, the 

 large lakes in the mountainous districts of Scandinavia, 

 especially those of which the shores are flat and boggy, and 

 covered with vegetation; and the nest is placed in a dry spot 

 at a considerable distance from the water, in a mere depression 

 of the ground, under some bush or tree, and lined with leaves 

 and down. I take the following from my own notes : — 



On February 23rd, 1841, 1 saw, at a Brighton bird-stuffer^s 

 since dead, an adult male specimen, which had been shot near 

 Alfriston, several miles inland, and which passed into my 

 collection. At the end of February 1851, a male was picked 

 up dead, on the beach, at Rottingdean, and preserved by 

 Mr. Pratt, from whom I received the trachea. On February 

 20th, 1861, I shot, about a mile off Rye Harbour, four males 

 and one female, of this species, of which there were several 

 flocks, which we found impossible to approach in a sailing 

 boat, but by rowing, which was very hard work in the rather 

 heavy sea which was running at the time, I obtained a few 

 shots. The first was the only bad shot I ever made 

 with which I was greatly pleased, for I missed the leading 

 bird at which I aimed, and killed the two behind it, at which 

 I did not shoot, a male and female ; as I wanted specimens 

 this suited me well, as I had only a shoulder-gun. On 



