THE VELVET SCOTER. 123 



My informant, a few days afterwards, saw a male bird there, which 

 he imagined to have been her mate, and tried to obtain a shot at 

 him but, unsuccessfully, owing to his wildness. About the 1st of 

 March, 1850, an adult male of this species was shot near the 

 lighthouse in Youghal harbour.* 



The only occasion on which I have seen the velvet scoter satis- 

 factorily in a wild state, was during a visit at Twizel House, Nor- 

 thumberland, in the autumn of 1838. When on the beach, one 

 day — about the 1st of September — in company with more than 

 one describer of the species (Mr. Selby, Sir Wm. Jardine, and the 

 Rev. L. Jenyns), several of these birds appeared, swimming between 

 us and the Tarn Islands ; and though at a considerable distance, 

 the white mark on the wing unerringly distinguished them from 

 the common scoter, with which only they could be confounded. 



In the month of March, Sir Wm. Jardine has pointed out to 

 me, in the Trith of Forth, off PortobeUo, what he knew to be 

 small flocks of these birds ; but they were too distant for the 

 species to be distinguished from the beach. This author's obser- 

 vations upon velvet scoters in that locality, where he has gone in 

 pui'suit of them in boats, will be found noticed in his work on 

 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 164. 



On the eastern coast of Scotland and that of the north of Eng- 

 land, the velvet scoter is chiefly found, and it continues there in 

 little flocks all the winter. In Ireland it has hitherto been ob- 

 served — as the foregoing localities denote — chiefly on the eastern 

 side of the island, and there very rarely. Velvet scoters were ob- 

 served by Captain May on the coast of Norway, in 1849. Late in 

 autumn he saw a number of them, in company with king eiders, 

 &c., near Tromsoe. This handsome duck is of occasional occur- 

 rence in winter as far south as the Mediterranean, but is properly a 

 northern species, in both the eastern and western hemispheres. 



* Dr. Harvey, of Cork. 



