THE SURF SCOTER 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 83 



If you cliance to be aboard a vessel steaming up the Hudson River 

 late in October you may see, if you keep a sharp lookout, many flocks 

 of wild ducks. If you examine these through a field-glass you will 

 probably discover some that appear larger than others, and that many of 

 them are black. Watch closely for such birds, for these large black ducks 

 of the open waters are pretty sure to be Surf Scoters. They do not 

 remain here long, and after the middle of November 

 are rarely seen on the Hudson River. At this season ' 



they also frequent the water of Lake Champlain, and 

 to some extent other lakes and rivers, particularly along the sea-board ; 

 they are numerous too at some places on the Great Lakes. 



The Scoters come down from the north with the general movement of 

 the feathered hosts that are fleeing before the freezing advance of the 

 Ice King. Being particularly fond of open water, few, indeed, are the 

 individuals that care to linger in lakes and rivers which may freeze. 

 Hence if we want to find the Surf Scoter in winter we must journey down 

 by the sea. Out in the rolling Atlantic, off Long Island, they are usually 

 numerous at this season, and also may be met with along the New Eng- 

 land coast, where they begin to arrive early in September. They occur 

 along the coast southward as far as South Carolina, and some have been 

 known to wander to Florida. In the Pacific Ocean, off Washington and 

 Oregon, they are even more abundant than in the Atlantic, and at times 

 go as far south as northern Mexico. 



Of the three species of Scoters found in North America it is possible 

 that this is most abundant. F. W. Nelson mentions a flock found by 

 him near Stewart Island, Alaska, which formed a continuous bed of 

 black bodies sitting closely together on the water over 

 an area that averaged more than half a mile in width, Fl k 



and about ten miles in length. This observation was 

 made late in the breeding season, and apparently all the birds were males. 

 When rising from the water the noise from their wings was like the con- 

 tinuous roar of some gigantic cataract. The species must have been very 

 numerous for these were all males, and we must remember that females 

 and young were doubtless in far greater numbers in the neighborhood. 



The summer home of the Surf Scoter i^ in the far North ; none is 

 known to rear its young in the United States. Those occasionally found 

 within our borders in summer are either cripples, as the result of winter 

 shooting, or arc non-breeding individuals. They nest in suitable situa- 

 tions north of a line drawn through Laborador, northern Quebec, Great 



