162 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



has killed these ducks on the Dorsetshire coast about 

 August, which would be unusually early in the 

 autumn for them to appear. 



SURF SCOTER. (Edemt'a pergpieillata, (L.) 



Yarrell, iv. p. 481 : Harting, p. 162 ; Dresser, vi. p. 669 ; Ibis 

 List, p. 136; Fuligula perspicillata, Setbohm, iii. p. 607. 



So far as I am aware, only two examples of the 

 Surf Scoter have been met with within the limits of 

 the county, namely, one near Weymouth in the 

 winter of 1851 (Yarrell), and the other, a young 

 male, shot in Weymouth Backwater in company with 

 a Golden-Eye in December 1853 (Zoologist, 1854, 

 P- 4 2 55)- 



GOOSANDER. Mergus merganser, L. 



Yarrell, vi. p. 488 ; Harting, p. 68 ; Dresser, vi. p. 685 ; See- 

 bohm, iii. p. 625 ; Ibis List, p. 136 ; Pulteneys List, p. 19. 



During the winter months the Goosander is not 

 an unfrequent visitor to the estuaries and tidal 

 harbours. Pulteney notices a pair which were shot 

 at Bryanston in 1776 ; and one procured at the same 

 place in 1815 is in Viscount Portman's collection. 

 The late Mr. W. Thompson of Weymouth noted it 

 as being occasionally shot in that neighbourhood, 

 and probably more have been met with than have 

 come to my knowledge, for professional gunners 

 confound the Goosander (especially the females and 

 immature males) with the Red-breasted Merganser, 



