No. 28.] BIRD NAMES. 99 



" flying west nor'west." Many duckers tell me that these larger 

 birds are seldom or never seen to alight, and that they almost 

 always appear late in the afternoon, and are to be seen passing 

 over in immense flocks until hidden by the night. This sup- 

 posed " variety " is also called, though less frequently, the EAST- 

 ERN WHITE-WING, on Buzzard's Bay from New Bedford to 

 Barney's Joy Point. As I myself have never witnessed this 

 May migration, the above account is all that I can give con- 

 cerning it. 



At Portsmouth, N. II., and at Rowley and Salem, Mass., 

 PIED -WINGED COOT; in Connecticut at Milford (to the older 

 gunners) BELL-TONGUE COOT, at Stratford UNCLE-SAM COOT; 

 on Long Island at Bellport BULL COOT,* at Moriches BRANT 

 COOT; to some at Portsmouth, N. II., SEA BRANT; in the neigh- 

 borhood of Niagara Falls BLACK DUCK (see Nos. 7, 29); at 

 Crisfield, Md., ASSEMBLYMAN (though known as White-wing 

 also), the species being commonly referred to, singly or col- 

 lectively, as 'SemUymen. 



Mentioned in A Notice of the Ducks and Shooting of the 

 Chesapeake, by Dr. Sharpless (Cab. Nat. Hist., Vol. III., 1833), 

 as "Velvet, or CHANNEL DUCK." 



The " Lake Huron Scoter " described and figured by Herbert 

 (" Frank Forester ") in appendix to Field Sports, Vol II., was of 

 this species, and the author's testimony concerning its flesh is 

 amusing, when we think how disgusted he would have been to 

 have known that his scoter was simply the bird previously de- 

 scribed in same volume as "coarse," "fishy," "tough," and 

 " worthless." Having gotten hold of a young bird, however, and 

 excited with the belief that he had added a new species to our 

 fauna, he gushed as follows: "Not only as fat and as juicy, but 

 as delicate, as tender, as lusciously melting in the mouth, as any 



* Since writing the above, I have heard this name at Stony Creek, Conn., 

 and it strikes me as peculiarly appropriate for these thick-necked, big-headed, 

 heavily built drakes. The heaviest of five males, shot December 8th, weighed 

 four and a half pounds; and gunners tell me that May White-wings sometimes 

 weigh considerably more. 



