ANATIDA. 465 
THE COMMON SCOTER. 
(EpEmia nicRA (Linneus). 
A comparatively small number of immature Common or Black 
Scoters may be observed on our coasts during the entire summer, 
but the autumn and winter months are those in which this species 
is really abundant, and nowhere more so than along the eastern 
side of Great Britain. At times its flocks almost blacken the sea 
between this country and Holland, while they are also very plenti- 
ful in the English Channel; but not many enter the bays, except 
in coarse weather, though storm-driven birds occasionally take 
refuge on inland waters. On the coast of Wales, as well as in the 
west of England and Scotland, the Scoter is less plentiful, except on 
the shallows of Morecambe Bay and on the Solway, where thousands 
are sometimes seen ; it is comparatively rare in the Hebrides, except 
at Tiree, where it bred in 1897; and it is not numerous in the 
Orkneys or the Shetlands. In spring the majority take their depar- 
ture for the north of Europe, but a few remain to breed in Caith- 
ness, Sutherland, and the north-west of Rosshire. In Ireland the 
species is abundant every winter on the marine loughs from Dundalk 
northward, and south-westward to Connaught, but in the south it is 
comparatively uncommon. 
The Scoter visits the Feroes and nests sparingly in Iceland, while 
it is generally distributed during summer in the northern portions 
of Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia as far as the Taimyr and 
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