6?;] 



to me ; and I thus found that one compact flock was at least half a mile in length, a second 

 reaching from one point to another distant nearly a mile and a quarter. I made several telling 

 shots amongst them, knocking over eight at one discharge, and six and four at a double shot, 

 though I was only using a light fifteen-bore gun. I found them, however, very hard to recover ; 

 for during the time the dog was retrieving them, one or two were sure to come to and paddle off, 

 and the sea was too rough to go out in a boat to pick up the cripples. The males proved to be 

 far more numerous than the females, of which sex I only killed three during the whole day. 



The Surf-Scoter much resembles the Velvet Scoter in its general habits, and, like that 

 species, dives excellently, remaining for long under the water, and obtains it food chiefly by 

 diving. Its flight is swift and powerful ; and, as above stated, I have usually seen it in large 

 flocks during passage. 



I give above some notes, kindly communicated to me by Dr. Brewer, respecting the nidifi- 

 cation of the present species in the Arctic regions of America ; but Audubon obtained its eggs 

 when collecting in Labrador, and shot the female as she rose from her nest. " For more than a 

 week," he writes (B. of Am. vii. p. 49), " after we had anchored in the lovely harbour of Little 

 Macatma, I had been anxiously searching for the nest of this species, but in vain ; the millions 

 that sped along the shores had no regard to my wishes. At length I found that a few pairs had 

 remained in the neighbourhood ; and one morning while in company of Captain Emery, searching 

 for the nests of the Red-breasted Merganser over a vast oozy and treacherous freshwater marsh, 

 I suddenly started a female Surf-Duck from her treasure. We were then about five miles 

 distant from our harbour, from which our party had come in two boats, and fully five and a half 

 miles from the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The marsh was about three miles in length, 

 and so unsafe that more than once we both feared, as we were crossing it, that we might never 

 reach its margin. The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass, and 

 raised fully four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of withered and rotted weeds, 

 the former being circularly arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded cavity six inches 

 in diameter by two and a half in depth. The borders of this inner cup were lined with the 

 down of the bird, in the same manner as the Eider Duck's nest ; and in it lay five eggs, the 

 smallest number I have ever found in any Duck's nest. They were two inches and two and a 

 half eighths in length by one inch and five eighths in their greatest breadth, more equally rounded 

 at both ends than usual, the shell perfectly smooth, and of a uniform pale yellowish or cream- 

 colour. I took them on board, along with the female bird, which was shot as she rose from her 

 nest. We saw no male bird near the spot, but in the course of the same day met with several 

 males by themselves, about four miles distant from the marsh, as we were returning to the 

 harbour. This induced me to believe that, like the Eider and other Ducks that breed in 

 Labrador, the males abandon the females as soon as incubation commences." 



I am indebted to the liberality of the authorities of the Smithsonian Institution of Wash- 

 ington for an egg of this Duck, obtained by Macfarlane on the Arctic coast east of Anderson 

 river. In coloration and general appearance it resembles the eggs of the Velvet Scoter, but is 

 smaller, measuring only 2^f by lf§ inch. 



The specimens figured are an adult male and female, shot by myself at Point Lepreaux, in 

 the Bay of Fundy, and are those above described. 



K. 



