132 ANATID^. 



descriptions of the habits, &c. of this species, which is commou 

 on the North American coast, increasing in numbers northward." 



THE VELVET SCOTER. 

 Velvet Duck ; Double Scoter. 



Oidemia fusca, Linn, (sp.) 



Is an occasional winter visitant to the coast. 



In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1835^ 

 (p. 79), I noticed a specimen as having been shot at Clontarf, 

 near Dubhn, on the 2nd of December, 1833. In March 1834, 

 Mr. Glennon informed me that he had, in the course of many years, 

 received only two fresh specimens which were killed in Ireland; — 

 and subsequently mentioned that one was shot on the river Liffey in 

 the winter of 1837-38. A fine male bird w^as got at Portrane, 

 on the DubHu coast, on the 13th of January, 1838. This species 

 was procured in Wexford harbour previous to 1836, when the 

 circumstance was made known to me.* An immature velvet scoter 

 obtained in September 1847 at Dublin, in a recent state, has the 

 white mark on the wing, but no white on the head ; the plumage 

 of the breast is of a mottled white and blackish-brown. It does 

 not agree with the description of a young male, and is, I pre- 

 sume, a young female; — wliich I have not seen described. This 

 specimen, with the adult bird already noticed, from Portrane, is in 

 the University Museum, Dubhn : both were purchased in a recent 

 state by Mr. E. Ball. Mr. R. J. Montgomery, waiting from 

 Queensborough, Drogheda, in March 1849, mentioned that a 

 velvet scoter had been killed in the bay there " last winter," and 

 informed me, on May the 10th, that an adult female had been 

 taken that day on a hook set by a fisherman in Drogheda Bay. 



* Major T. Waliicr. 



