VELVET SCOTER. 313 



bles laminated, with the plates broad, strong, and widely set. Nostrils lateral, 

 elevated, oval, placed near the middle of the bill. Wings of mean length, con- 

 cave, acute. Tail short, graduated, acute. Legs far behind the centre of gravity ; 

 tarsi short ; feet large, of four toes, three in front, and one behind. Outer toe as 

 long as the middle one, and much longer than the tarsus ; hind toe with a large 

 lobated membrane. Selby. 



THE VELVET DUCK is only a winter visiter to the sea- 

 shore of the British Islands. It has been killed in the 

 vicinity of Dublin, in Cornwall, and in Devonshire. J. G. 

 Shorter, Esq., of Hastings, obtains specimens on that part 

 of the Sussex coast, and it has been killed off Dover. 

 Specimens were obtained in the London market during 

 the winters of 1832 and 1837; Mr. Hoy procured it 

 in Suffolk, and it has also been killed in Norfolk. It occurs 

 in Holland and France, and even as far south as Provence 

 and Italy, being included in the Histories of the birds 

 of those countries by Messrs. Temminck, Vieillot, Roux, 

 and Savi. From its habits of diving rather than flying 

 when approached, it is sometimes caught in the nets of 

 our sea fishermen, by becoming entangled in the meshes, 

 and it is occasionally caught also in the stake nets set 

 for salmon, as noticed by Mr. Selby, who mentions " that 

 in those he had dissected, the gizzard, which was large and 

 strong, was filled with the remains of mytilus, mactra, 

 solen, and other shelly mollusca, intermixed with the spawn 

 of fish or crustaceous animals." 



Mr. Robert Dunn says this species is rare in Shetland, 

 but is very common in Orkney, where it arrives in the 

 beginning of winter, and retires again very early in the 

 spring. It frequents the sounds in flocks of ten or twelve, 

 generally feeding in the middle or deep water, and in the 

 stream of the tide. It is remarkably shy, and great 

 caution is required in approaching it. The flesh of this 

 Duck is in no estimation. 



