659 



assured him he had taken in Scotland ; and there is no doubt that it really has bred there ; for 

 Mr. E. T. Booth writes to me as follows: — " I have never myself seen the Velvet Scoter nesting; 

 but I sent a man, who knows the bird as well as I do, to search a loch, and he found the eggs • 

 but, as you are aware, the eggs are no good to me; so he did not bring them, and I never went 

 to look at them. He saw both the male and female birds ; so there is not the slightest doubt 

 about the matter ; and he also observed another pair within half a mile. This happened several 

 years ago ; and since then I have never been exploring in that district." For obvious reasons 

 Mr. Booth does not give the locality where this nest was found. In Ireland this Scoter is 

 occasionally met with on the coast in winter. 



I do not find it recorded from Iceland ; and, according to Captain Feilden, Mr. H. C. 

 Muller has only once obtained it in the Faeroes. 



In Scandinavia the present species is common, and generally distributed during the breeding, 

 season. Mr. Collett informs me that in Norway it " breeds numerously on the rivers and lakes 

 in the interior, especially in the Gudbrandsdale, Valders, and Osterdale, and in the northern 

 districts up into Finmark. On the fells it is met with up to the birch -region, and it always 

 breeds near fresh water. So soon as the females commence to sit, the males leave them, and, 

 collecting in large flocks, resort to the sea, where they frequent the outer islands ; and no old 

 females are seen amongst these flocks. So soon as the young birds are full-grown they and the 

 females rejoin the males, and some few remain over the winter on our coasts, though the larger 

 proportion migrate southwards. They are found in winter as far north as Tromso in 69° 30' N. 

 lat., but scarcely in Finmark proper. It breeds all along the Swedish coast. Meves found it 

 nesting not unfrequently on Oland ; and Nilsson says that it is tolerably widely distributed and 

 common on the coasts of Sweden during the breeding-season, and has been found nesting from 

 Blekinge and North-east Skane up far into Lapland, and on the fells up into the birch-region. 

 According to Dr. Palmen (Finl. Fogl. ii. p. 461) it breeds throughout the whole of Northern 

 Finland, but in the southern portions chiefly on the coast. Fellman states that it is common 

 throughout Enare, but becomes less numerous in Utsjoki ; but, according to Malm, it was found 

 commonly on the Pasvik river to its mouth. Sahlberg and Malmberg met with it at Kantalaks 

 and Sonkelo ; and it is recorded from Muonioniska, Enontekis, and Kerni. Brander says that it 

 is less numerous in Kuusamo and Pudasjarvi ; and Mr. Hollmerus found it breeding in Sotkamo 

 in the summer of 1872 ; but south of this there are but few instances of its having been met with 

 nesting in the interior, though it breeds along the coast down to Wiborg. It is said to breed 

 commonly near Uleaborg, where I frequently saw it and have taken its eggs. It has been 

 recorded from Gamla Karleby, Wasa, and the mouths of the Kumo and Eura rivers, but does 



o o 



not appear to range inland. It breeds numerously on Aland, and also less commonly off Abo, 

 the Nyland coast, and the parish of Ruolaks in the province of Wiborg. It is common in 

 Northern Russia and Novaya Zemlya, and breeds not unfrequently near Archangel; but it 

 appears to be much rarer on the Petchora river, for Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown only 

 observed it twice at Stanavoialachta, and found one nest on the 6th July. Mr. L. Sabanaefl' 

 informs me that it breeds in the Orenburg Government and throughout the whole of Perm. In 

 the countries skirting the south of the Baltic it does not appear to breed ; but Borggreve says 

 that it is a tolerably regular winter visitant to the shores of North Germany, especially in the 



I 



