170 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



winter, feeding daily in the shallow water inshore, 

 or over some of the many sandbanks which fringe 

 the Lincolnshire coast. They are always especially 

 numerous off the Haile Sand, opposite Donna Nook, 

 as well as Glee-Ness, both which places are very 

 favourite feeding- grounds of the " Black Ducks." 



The Scoter is a late nester, and they do not leave 

 us to go northward till rather late in the spring ; in 

 backward seasons I have observed them linger about 

 the river up to the first week in May. A flock ex- 

 amined through a powerful telescope on the fourth of 

 that month in 1868 was entirely composed of adults, 

 males and females swimming together in pairs. 



Many, presumedly the young of the preceding year, 

 do not go northward to breed, but remain in consider- 

 able numbers on our coasts throughout the summer. 

 In May we find flocks of Scoters in the Humber still 

 in the immature plumage, or, rather, changing from 

 the immature dress to one resembling the adult. They 

 have still the grey cheeks and throat of the first plu- 

 mage; and in some the underparts have a mottled 

 appearance, brown and white. By the end of June 

 these have acquired a dress resembling the adult, but 

 differing in depth of colouring, the young females 

 having a lighter or more chocolate-brown tint than 

 the mature birds ; and the males have altogether a 

 greyer and duller look, and not that beautiful glossy 

 black we see in the adult. In this plumage they 

 may easily be mistaken for the adult bird. These 



