SURF SCOTER. 325 



killed in Musselburgh Bay ; this species has occurred twice 

 in or near Weymouth, one in the winter of 1851, the se- 

 cond in the winter of 1853, as I learn from Mr. Wm. 

 Thompson of Weymouth ; and Mr. Bartlett of London, 

 received a recently-shot Surf Scoter for preservation, as 

 recorded in the third volume of the Naturalist, page 420, 

 from which bird the measurements here given and some 

 other particulars were derived. M. Vieillot says that this 

 species appears sometimes on the coast of Picardy, and 

 that it lives on fishes and testaceous mollusca, which are 

 obtained by diving. Professor Schinz mentions one killed 

 in Switzerland, in April, 1818. Messrs. Meyer and Wolf 

 include this Duck in their pocket volumes of the Birds of 

 Germany ; and Professor Nilsson gives a coloured figure 

 of the male in his illustrated Fauna of Scandinavia, in 

 consequence of the occurrence of the species in that 

 country. It is found in Greenland, but it is only, how- 

 ever, on the shores of high latitudes in North America 

 that Surf Scoters in any quantity can be observed ; and 

 the accounts of Wilson and Mr. Audubon must be referred 

 to for a knowledge of their habits in localities where they 

 are abundant. 



Wilson says, " This Duck is confined to the shores and 

 bays of the sea, particularly where the waves roll over the 

 sandy beach. Their food consists principally of small 

 bivalve shell-fish, spout-fish, and others that lie in the sand 

 near its surface. For these they dive almost constantly, 

 both in the sandy bays and amidst the tumbling surf. 

 They seldom or never visit the salt marshes. They con- 

 tinue on our shores during the winter, and leave us early 

 in May for their breeding-places in the North. Their 

 skins are remarkably strong, and their flesh coarse, tasting 

 of fish. They are common in winter along the whole 

 coast, from the river St. Lawrence to Florida. This 



