SURF SCOTER 



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The courtship of this species is thus described by Alford (1920): "I 

 once watched 8 male Surf Scoters wooing one female, and a most absurd 

 spectacle it was. Immediately the female dived, down went all her ad- 

 mirers in pursuit. Then af- 

 ter a lapse of about 40 sec- 

 onds the males would reap- 

 pear one by one, the female, 

 who was always the last to 

 rise to the surface, being in- 

 variably accompanied by one 

 male; but whether it was the 

 same male on each occasion 

 I was unable to distinguish. 

 For a few seconds pande- 

 monium would reign, the re- 

 jected suitors splashing 

 through the water and peck- 

 ing at their rivals in the most 

 vicious manner, whilst the 

 object of their desire floated 

 serenely in their midst, ap- 

 parently well pleased that she 

 should be the object of so 

 much commotion. Then she 

 would dive again, and so the 

 performance continued for 

 over an hour, when they 

 drifted out of sight." Daw- 

 son (1909), describing the courtship of one female by five males, says 

 that he has watched the display continue for half an hour at a time, 

 "off and on, and the villains still pursue her." 



Though the Surf Scoter breeds over a wide area, its nests are seldom 

 found. The site chosen is invariably in some inaccessible region and the 

 nest itself carefully concealed. Audubon (1840) described a nest he 

 found as "entirely composed of withered and rotten weeds, the former 

 being circularly arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded cav- 

 ity 6 inches in diameter by 2i/2 in depth. The borders of this inner cup 

 were lined with the down of the bird." The nest was snugly placed amid 

 the tall leaves of a bunch of grass, and was in a marsh so unsafe that 

 more than once he feared that he might never reach its margin. The 

 number of eggs varies from 5 to 9, the colour is pinkish or buffy white, 

 the shell, smooth but not glossy and the average size, 2.42 by 1.69 inches. 

 In spring the main northward flight of these birds takes place in 

 May, when in countless numbers they wing their way along the coasts to 

 their summer breeding grounds. In autumn the return voyage is made 

 in September and October, the older birds usually preceding the younger 

 by a week or two. On the Atlantic coast the winter is spent from the Bay 

 of Fundy to Florida; on the Pacific coast, from the Aleutians to Lower 

 California. Many Surf Scoters find their way to the Great Lakes. 



