124 ANATID^. 



THE BLACK OR COMMON SCOTER. 



Black Duck. 



Oidemia nigra, Linn, (sp.) 

 Anas ,, „ 



Is a regular visitant to certain localities on the coast. 



The places of its regular or occasional occurrence known to me 

 shall be noticed from north to south. At Malin Head, the 

 extreme northern point of Ireland, and Portrush, near the Giant's 

 Causeway, it has been obtained ; — at the latter locality in ]\Iarch 

 1840.'^ One, kUled at Dundrum, on the coast of Down, on the 

 13th of March, 1824, came under my notice, and tlu'ee of these 

 birds were seen in the river which falls into the bay there in 

 the winter of 1 831-32. t Numbers of scoters were observed at 

 Lurgan Green, county of Louth, so early in the autumn as 

 August 1839. J I had seen a specimen — one of five — killed near 

 Dundalk, a few years before that time. 



The fullest information respecting the scoter has been com- 

 municated to me by R. J. Montgomery, Esc[., and relates to 

 Drogheda Bay. In the months of September and October of 

 1842, 1843, and 1844 (in August also of the last year), flocks, 

 amounting to some hundred individuals, were seen there by that 

 gentleman in the course of a day, forty to fifty birds at least 

 being generally in one flock. In other years, also, they came 

 under his notice, but were not so plentiful ; not nearly so in the 

 winter of 1848-49, when the information respecting the species 

 was supplied to me. They are well known to all the fishermen 

 by the name of " black ducks," and are often captured on their 

 hooks. They formerly frequented the mouth of the river, but 

 are now generally to be seen farther out in the bay. 



My correspondent remarks : — " I have been endeavouring to 

 ascertain the reason of the diminution in numbers of the scoters 



* Colonel Portlock, R.E. f The late Mr. Joha Montgomery, 



i ^Ir. II. H. Dombrain. 



