118 ANATIDiE. 



This species is of occasional occurrciice in tlic more northern countries 

 of Europe to Germany inclusive, and in similar latitudes of Asia and 

 North America, but is very rare in both hemispheres. 



THE SURE SCOTER. 

 Surf Duck. 



Oidemia perspicillata, Linn, (sp.) 

 Anas „ „ 



Has been once obtained. 



I PUBLISHED the following notice of one in the 1 8th volume of 

 the ' Annals of Natural History' : — 



"A beautiful adult male of this species was shot at Bally- 

 holme, Belfast Bay, on the 9tli of September, 1846, by Snowden 

 Corken, Esq. It was alone, about two hundred yards from the 

 shore, allowed three shots to be fired at it before attempting to 

 dive, and was killed at the fourth or fifth shot, on reaching the 

 surface after having dived. ^ TSvo of these birds had, a day or 

 two before, been observed in company in the same locality, and 

 one individual was seen several times in the course of a few weeks 

 after the subject of this notice had been killed. ' The weight of 

 the specimen was 1 lb. 14 oz. ; its length, 21 inches ; wing, from 

 carpus to point of quills, 9 inches 2 lines ; tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ; 

 middle toe and nail, 2 inches 8 lines ; breadth across the wings, 

 27 inches / — as noted during my absence from home, by Dr. J. 

 D. Marshall, but for whose kindness, and the considerate atten- 

 tion of Mr. Darragh (curator of the Belfast Museum), 1 might 

 not have had the opportunity of seeing the bird, and certainly 



* Audubon remarks, that "it is an uncommonly shy bird, and therefore difficult 

 to be obtained, unless shot at while on wing, or when asleep, and, as it were, at 

 anchor on our bays, or neai' the shore ; for it dives as suddenly as the velvet and 

 scoter ducks, eluding even the best percussion-locked guns." — ' Orn. Biog.,' vol. iv. 

 p. 163. 



