13 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with approaching spring they at once betake themselves to fresh 

 as well as salt-water loughs to breed. They have never been 

 known to breed in England, though in Scotland, and all along 

 the Scandinavian Peninsula, they nest freely. Their food, of 

 course, consists offish, for securing and holding which their saw- 

 bills are most admirably adapted. 



Off the Northumberland coast, the sea ducks proper are the 

 Common and Velvet Scoters (though the latter is rather scarce), 

 the Long-tailed Duck, the Eider, and the Shellduck. 



Sea ducks obtain at least a great part of their food by diving, 

 and in general this consists of the soft bodies of molluscs. That 

 they will avail themselves, however, of other food when occasion 

 offers is certain, and the following was narrated to me by a fisher- 

 man in whose observation I can place implicit faith: — About 

 thirty-five years ago, a sailing vessel, " The Falcon," loaded with 

 grain, was wrecked off Holy Island in September. At first 

 about a dozen Scoters frequented the scene, feeding on the 

 grain, but afterwards many hundreds of these birds, as well as 

 Long-tailed Ducks, were daily to be seen greedily devouring the 

 floating grain as it was washed out of the ship. 



The same man also told me how one night in the first or 

 second week of September, twenty-five years ago,— a dark night it 

 was, with drizzling rain, — a bird deliberately flung itself upon the 

 burning coals of the stove in the coble where they were warming 

 their coffee, and that he quickly picked it out of the fire to 

 prevent it being burnt. The bird was a Storm Petrel {Procellaria 

 lulagica), and he kept it alive for several days, till it ended 

 its misfortunes by being eaten by his cat. 



This man also told me how two birds hovered round the 

 fishin«-boat one day, which, from his description, can have been 

 no other than Fulmar Petrels. Both of these Petrels occur 

 irregularly on the Northumberland coast. 



Though not a regular gunner, it will be seen that my 

 informant is an observant man. When crossing along the 

 edge of the ooze, he one day pointed to a bank a few yards 

 above high-water mark, at the same time remarking that " it was 

 on that very bank where he once saw, during the month of 

 March, several hundred ' Ware Geese ' sitting, and that this was 

 the only instance during his lifetime that he had known these 

 geese to alight above the " full sea-mark." Generally speaking. 



