SURF SCOTER. 323 



the third volume of the Naturalist, page 420, from which 

 bird the measurements here given and some other par- 

 ticulars were derived. M. Vieillot says that this species 

 appears sometimes on the coast of Picardy, and that it 

 lives on fishes and testaceous mollusca, which are obtained 

 by diving. Professor Schinz mentions one killed in Swit- 

 zerland, in April 1818. Messrs. Meyer and Wolf include 

 this Duck in their pocket volumes of the Birds of Germany; 

 and Professor Nilsson gives a coloured figured of the male 

 in his illustrated Fauna of Scandinavia, in consequence of 

 the occurrence of the species in that country. It is only, 

 however, on the shores of high latitudes in North America 

 that Surf Scoters in any quantity can be observed ; and 

 the accounts of Wilson and Mr. Audubon must be referr- 

 ed to for a knowledge of their habits in localities where 

 they are abundant. 



Wilson says, " this Duck is confined to the shores and 

 bays of the sea, particularly where the waves roll over the 

 sandy beach. Their food consists principally of small 

 bivalve shell-fish, spout-fish, and others that lie in the sand 

 near its surface. For these they dive almost constantly, 

 both in the sandy bays and amidst the tumbling surf. 

 They seldom or never visit the salt marshes. They con- 

 tinue on our shores during the winter, and leave us early 

 in May, for their breeding places in the North. Their 

 skins are remarkably strong, and their flesh coarse, tasting 

 of fish. They are common in winter along the whole 

 coast, from the river St. Lawrence to Florida. This 

 species was also found by Captain Cook, at Nootka Sound, 

 on the north-west coast of America." 



Mr. Audubon's account furnishes many interesting par- 

 ticulars, and a portion of it is as follows : " While pro- 

 ceeding towards the sterile country of Labrador, in 1833, 



Y 2 



