SCOBBY SCOTER 817 



flights, in which all will shoot rapidly upwards, making the strokes 

 of their wings resound so as to be heard at a considerable distance. 

 The same kind of behaviour has been observed in the allied M. 

 tyrannus, a more soberly - coloured and even longer - tailed bird, 

 which, though properly a native of Central and pretty generally of 

 South America, occasionally strays to the northern part of that 

 continent, and has occurred more than once within the limits of the 

 United States. Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. p. 161 ; Nat. in La 

 Plata, pp. 271, 272) states that the birds of this species, though 

 not gregarious, rise just before sunset to the tree-tops, and after 

 calling to one another with loud and excited chirps, "mount 

 upwards like rockets, to a great height in the air; then, after 

 whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves 

 downwards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their 

 tails during their wild zigzag flight, and uttering a succession of 

 sharp, grinding notes." 



SCOBBY, a north-country name for the CHAFFINCH (p. 82). 



SCOLDER perhaps from Icel. Skjoldr (cf. SHELD-DRAKE), or 

 possibly from Icel. Tjaldr ; Fseroese Tjaldur, in Orkney a name 

 for the OYSTER-CATCHER (p. 681); but, according to Mr. Trumbull 

 (Names & Portr. B. p. 89), on the east coast of North America for 

 the Long-tailed DUCK (see HARELD, p. 406). 



SCOOPER, said to have 'been a local name for the AVOSET 

 (p. 23). 



SCOTER, a word of doubtful origin, perhaps a variant of 

 SCOUT one of the many local names snared in common by the 



SCOTER. SURF-DUCK. 



(After Swainson.) 



GUILLEMOT and the RAZORBILL, or perhaps primarily connected 

 with CooT, 1 the English name of the Anas nigra of Linnaeus, 

 which with some allied species has been justifiably placed in a 



1 In the former case the derivation seems to be from the 0. Fr. Escoutc, and 

 that from the Latin auscultare (cf. Skeat, Etymol. Diet. p. 533), but in the 

 latter from the Dutch Koet (Coox), which is said to be of Celtic extraction 

 Cwtiar (op. cii. p. 134). The French Macreuse, possibly from the Latin macer, 

 indicating a bird that may be eaten in Lent or on the fast days of the Roman 

 Church, is of double signification, meaning in the south of France a Coot and in 

 the north a Scoter. By the wild-fowlers of parts of North America Scoters are 

 commonly called Coots. 



52 



