i9 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



In the spring it migrates northward to breed, and according to Professor 

 Reinhardt it occasionally visits Greenland. It is reported by Mr. MacFarlane as 

 common near Fort Anderson and on the Lower Anderson River, and to be very 

 abundant on the sea coast about Franklin Bay, and in all probability it frequents, 

 in the breeding season, the whole of the mainland coast of America fronting the 

 Arctic ocean. Mr. Nelson says it is the least numerous of any of the Scoters on 

 the shores of Bering's Sea, but it is common at St. Michaels, Norton Sound, each 

 autumn and spring. During the cruise of the Corwin several were seen during 

 the last week in August on the north-east Siberian shore, and on the rocks about 

 Cape Wankarem. 



On the Pacific coast its range extends as far south as California, and on the 

 Atlantic side to Florida and the Gulf, gradually extending its journey southward 

 in the autumn, according to the severity of the season or for a better supply of 

 suitable food in the warmer southern waters. 



The Surf-Scoter occurs from time to time as a visitor to the British Isles, 

 but the occurrences have been chiefly on the western side of the country, from 

 Devon and Cornwall in the south, to Northern Scotland and the Hebrides, also 

 at least eight times on the Irish coasts.* In the Orkneys it appears to be not 

 unfrequent in the winter in company with Velvet-Scoters, (Yarrell, ed. iv., vol. iv., 

 pp. 482-3). The late Dr. Saxby does not include it in his " Birds of Shetland," 

 but refers to the statement, (as mentioned by Yarrell), made by Mr. T. H. Dunn, 

 that he saw an adult male on Rona Voe, in June, 1847. It is impossible to give 

 all the occurrences in Great Britain, but there is no doubt this bird is not nearly 

 such a rarity as was supposed. 



Besides the British Islands, the Surf-Scoter has occurred as a straggler to the 

 Bermudas, Heligoland, the Faeroes and the coasts of Scandinavia, Germany and 

 France, and has been taken in Switzerland. There is a beautiful adult male in 

 the Bergen Museum, labelled Hjellefjord, September 23rd, 1893. 



The authors of " American Water Birds," (vol. ii., p. 101), say : " From 

 September to April the Surf Duck is common on the whole Atlantic coast, from 

 Nova Scotia to North Carolina, its presence apparently being regulated as much 

 by the abundance of its food as the severity of the weather. Until mid-winter the 

 flocks gradually move southward, their food being more abundant in southern 

 waters, and after February gradually find their way back. In April a general 

 migration northward becomes very perceptible, and by the end of that month the 



* Since this was written, Mr. R. Warren, on December igth, 1896, met with an adult male and female 

 Surf-Scoter in the Moyne Channel, Killala Bay, the female lie shot and winged the male, which was subsequently 

 obtained by a friend on January i8th, 1897. There is a graphic account of the chase of the wounded male by 

 Mr. Warren, in the "Zoologist," 1897, pp, 84-5. 



