166 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



Scoters were killed in the last week in April, 1878, 

 off the Esplanade; he continues, "I had only a 

 cursory glance of them as I was passing through 

 the market in a hurry, and I am not sure they were 

 not Velvet Scoters. The male had a great deal of 

 bright yellow about the nostrils." Mr. MacCulloch, 

 however, told me afterwards, when I asked him 

 more about them, and especially whether he had 

 seen any white about the wing, that he had not 

 seen any white whatever about them, so I have but 

 little doubt that they were Common Scoters, and 

 he could hardly have failed to be struck by the 

 conspicuous white bar on the wing, by which the 

 Velvet Scoter, both male and female, may imme- 

 diately be distinguished from the Common Scoter. 

 As on the South Coast of Devon or Dorset, a few 

 scattered Scoters non-breeding birds, of course 

 remain throughout the summer. I have one, a 

 male, killed off Guernsey on July 19th : this bird 

 is in that peculiar state of plumage which all the 

 males of the Anatidce put on from about July to 

 October, and in which many of them look so like 

 the females. 



The Common Scoter is included in Professor 

 Ansted's list, and marked only as occurring in 

 Guernsey. The Velvet Scoter is also included in 

 Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring 

 in Guernsey ; but there seems to be no other 

 evidence of its having occurred in the Islands ; 



