318 ANATIDJl. 



two outside the rocks of the Isle of Wight, and in Christ- 

 church Bay in June and July. It is not improbable that 

 these were birds only twelve or fourteen months old, that 

 would remain unable to breed till the following summer. 

 The Scoter is not very often found on fresh- water inland 

 during winter ; yet the late Sir Richard C. Hoare, Bart., 

 sent me word, some years ago, that his keeper had shot a 

 Scoter on the ornamental water in the Park at Stourhead, 

 Wiltshire, which is more than twenty miles from the sea, in 

 a straight line, and no such bird had been seen there before. 

 It has also been shot on a pond at Farnham in Hampshire. 

 The Scoter feeds almost exclusively on the soft bodies of 

 muscles, and the animals of other bivalve shells, which they 

 obtain by diving, and they approach the shore generally 

 with each flood-tide for the purpose of satisfying their 

 appetite. The flesh of the Scoter is oily, and has a strong 

 fishy taste ; it is in consequence, but seldom eaten in this 

 country ; but these same qualities are considered a recom- 

 mendation elsewhere, for being identified with fish, it is 

 allowed by the Romish church to be eaten in Lent, and on 

 fast days ; and so great is the demand for it, that many 

 devices are in use on the sea coasts of Catholic countries to 

 obtain these Ducks for the use of the table. One of the 

 modes in practice is thus described in more than one work 

 on ornithology. Advantage is taken of the habits of this 

 Duck by the fishermen on the coast, who, at the ebb-tide, 

 spread their nets horizontally, about two or three feet above 

 the beds of shell-fish, which these birds are observed most 

 to haunt. Upon the return of the tide the Scoters ap- 

 proach in great numbers, and diving for their food, become 

 entangled in the meshes of the floating nets ; and in this 

 way it is said that twenty or thirty dozens have been taken 

 in a single tide. 



