500 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



reddish brown ; the lesser -wing-coverts dull brown, 

 slightly margined with pale brown ; the greater wing- 

 coverts are tipped with white ; tertials dusky brown, 

 margined with white ; the chin and throat rather 

 paler than the head ; breast, flanks and under tail- 

 coverts dull 3 r ellowish brown, some of the feathers 

 margined with a paler shade ; belly yellowish white. 



The eggs are said to be smaller than those of the 

 Wild Duck, and of a rich creamy white colour. 



COMMON SCOTER, Oidemia nigra. The Common 

 Scoter is by no means so numerous on our coast as 

 it is on the south coast of Devon, where I have seen 

 it in the late autumn in very large flocks : it remains 

 on that coast all through the winter, and I have seen 

 an occasional one as late in the spring as May. 



I have never myself seen this bird on our Somer- 

 setshire coast, the Scaup Duck, which appears to 

 me much more common there, being generally called 

 the " Black Duck." I have, however, seen a few 

 specimens at Mrs. Turle's, which had been shot in 

 the neighbourhood of Burnham. Montagu says of 

 it, " Mr. Anstice informs us that the Scoter is occa- 

 sionally taken in the river Brue, near Bridgwater, in 

 Somersetshire, in the winter, but more commonly in 

 the moulting season, having cast so many feathers of 

 their wings as to render them incapable of flight : in 

 this state they frequently get within the nets in 

 shallow water, are surrounded at the ebbing tide, and 

 cannot escape." Some of those I shot on the south 



