SURF SCOTER RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 383 



THE SURF SCOTER. 



01 DEM I A PERSPICILLATA. 



THE only specimen of this unmistakable species which I have seen 

 in the West of Scotland is one now in the collection of Sir James 

 Matheson, Baronet, of Lewis : it was shot in the winter of 1865 

 at Holm, near Stornoway, by Mr Macgillivray of Stornoway. The 

 species is included in a list of Caithness birds by Mr E. S. Sinclair 

 of Wick, but neither date nor locality is given. An adult male 

 was shot at Swanbister, parish of Orphir, in Orkney, in March, 

 1866, as I have been obligingly informed by Mr J. H. Dunn; and 

 in June, 1847, the same gentleman states that in one of his boating 

 excursions after other birds in Rona's Voe, Shetland, he saw an 

 adult male of this species several times, but was unable to 

 procure it. 



Messrs Baikie and Heddle's statement, that " small flocks are 

 seen in our sounds every winter," is an obvious mistake. 



The Surf Scoter has been shot in the Firth of Forth, a speci- 

 men having been procured off Musselburgh in 1851, as recorded in 

 Turnbull's ' Birds of East Lothian,' etc. 



THE RED -CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 

 FULIGULA RUFINA. 



IN a communication made in January, 1863, to the Natural 

 History Society of Glasgow by Henry D. Graham, Esq., one of its 

 corresponding members, it is stated that a specimen of this bird 

 was shot on a fresh water loch on Craignish, in January of the 

 previous year, and sent to him by Captain M'Dougall of Luing. 

 The specimen was for some time in Mr Graham's possession, but 

 was afterwards given by him to Captain J. P. Orde of Kilmory, 

 in whose collection it has been placed. 



This appears to be the only record of the occurrence of the Red- 

 crested Pochard in any part of Scotland. The species is known 

 to have a tolerably wide geographical range, though not extending 

 so far westward as the British islands. It can only, therefore, 

 tarn up as an accidental visitor. 



