154 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Range. — Northern North America and eastern Asia. Breeds in north- 

 eastern Asia and from Kotzebue Sound to Aleutian Islands, including 

 Near Islands; also on west shore of Hudson Bay, Ungava and New- 

 foundland; winters on Asiatic coast to Japan, and from islands of 

 Bering Sea south rarely to Santa Catalina Island, Cal.; in the interior 

 not rare on the Great Lakes, and casual or accidental in Missouri, 

 Louisiana, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming; on the Atlantic coast 

 abundant during migration from Newfoundland and Maine south 

 (rarely to Florida). 



History. 



We have no means of knowing the early history of any 

 one of the Scoters as they all were generally grouped together 

 as " Coots " or " Black Ducks " by the early historians. The 

 Scoters or " Coots," as they are called by the gunners and 

 fishermen, are typical diving Ducks. They are very muscular 

 and powerful in build. The bony framework is strong, the 

 skin tough, and the feathers strong, coarse and very firmly 

 attached to the skin. The whole structure seems to be formed 

 to resist the tremendous water pressure that they encounter 

 while diving at great depths. Fishermen, both along the 

 Massachusetts coast and in the lake region of Wisconsin, have 

 told me that they have taken these diving Ducks in nets set 

 from fifty to one hundred feet below the service. This may 

 be an exaggeration, but Mackay says that they feed to a 

 depth of forty feet. Under water they use both legs and 

 wings for propulsion, and are even more at home there than 

 in the air. If threatened with danger they are as likely to 

 dive as to fly, and sometimes, when in full flight, they have 

 been seen to dive. The Scoters are universally known as 

 Coots along the New England coast, a name derived probably 

 from the French fishermen who first established the fishing 

 industry on the banks of Newfoundland. The true Coot, 

 however, is a lobe-footed fresh-water bird (see page 221). 

 The American Scoter and the two other New England species 

 appear on our shores early in the fall, and usually congregate 

 in greater or less numbers all winter on the shoals south of 

 Cape Cod, where they remain in greater numbers than any- 

 where else along our coast. In the shoal waters near Cape 

 Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard they find an abundant 



