244 THE BIEDS OF DEVON. 



Col. Hawker states that he shot three out of a flock one day in the month 

 of August, in Poole Harbour, where, at the present day, it is not very 

 rare, being, according to Mr, Mansel-Pleydell, in proportion of one to 

 every twenty of the Common Scoter. 



From information supplied by the late Mr. Booth to Mr. Dresser it 

 seems probable tliat the Velvet Duck, as well as the Common Scoter, 

 nests occasionally in the North of Scotland. It is common throughout 

 Scandinavia and Lapland, north of 60°, during the breeding-season. 



Surf- Scoter. Q^demia persincillata (Linn.). 



An accidental visitor, of very rare occurrence on the south coast of 

 the county. 



The Surf-Scoter is a very common and well-known bird in North 

 America, both on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, called by the shore- 

 shooters by the not very elegant name of " Skunk-billed Coot," Coot being 

 their generic term for eveiy species of Duck. The adults are readily to 

 be distinguished from the other Scoters by the two white patches, one on 

 the forehead and the other on the nape ; and in the Surf-Scoter there is 

 no white alar patch as in the Velvet Scoter. The three Scoters also differ 

 considerably in the colours of their bills, which are remarkably parti- 

 coloured with red, orange, and blue-black. The Surf-Scoter has now 

 occurred three times on the south coast of Devon, particulars of which 

 we give below ; all were immature birds. !Mr. llodd mentions two 

 obtained on the Scilly Islands, one of these, picked up on the beach in a 

 dying state, was examined by him in the flesh, and was a beautiful adult 

 male ; the other was immature. One, recorded by Dr. Bullmore, was 

 picked up near Pendennis Castle, on the beach, in a mutilated state. 

 Two have been recorded from the Dorsetshire coast, both from "Weymouth. 

 Like the other Scoters, this American species is an excellent diver. It 

 goes very far to the north in the nesting-season, and is then quite a 

 circumpolar bird. 



An immature specimen shot on Torbay in ISGO was purchased by the 

 late Mr. J. C!. Hole, of Newton Abbot, from Mr. E. Burt, curator of the 

 Torquay Museum, and was sold in one of the lots at the dispersion of 

 Mr. Hole's collection. Mr. Henry Nicholls mounted a Surf-Scoter in, 

 or about, 1862, which had been shot by Mr. Anning on Slapton 

 Ley : and Mr. Edmund A. S. Elliot had the good fortune to obtain an 

 imnifiture male which was shot near Kiugsbridge by Mr. Tom Foale on 

 20th October, 1891. It was very thin, the stomach containing grass- 

 wrack (Zostera marina) and some small shells determined to belong to 

 British species (E. A. S. E., in liti.). 



