CHAPTER X 



A NESTING HAUNT OF THE SCOTER 



THE longest day of the year found me at a wind-swept 

 Irish lough, where for the past few seasons a number 

 of scoter ducks have nested. 

 It was in 1903, I believe, that the first pair of scoters 

 appeared on this lough. Since then their numbers have in- 

 creased, until there were, at the time of my visit, at least 

 seventeen pairs nesting. That particular year they made 

 their first appearance there about April 10. At thiS time the 

 drakes are resplendent in their black, glossy plumage, and 

 as they "display " before the ducks their loud, whistling cries 

 may be heard at a great distance. Of all the ducks on this 

 lough the scoter is probably the latest to nest, and lays her 

 eggs even after the red-breasted merganser or the tufted duck. 

 Immediately the scoter duck commences to brood the drakes 

 disappear from the lough and probably seek the Atlantic lying 

 some twenty miles to the west. Certainly they are not again 

 seen on the lough until the following spring. In like manner 

 the young vanish mysteriously soon after they are hatched, 

 although on one occasion a "flapper" was shot early in 

 August. 



Arriving at the small station on the lough-side, I found a 

 boat awaiting me, and the veteran watcher, who had the birds 

 under his charge, informed me that he knew of two scoters' 

 nests on islands lying a mile or more up the lough. Un- 

 fortunately the weather resembled October rather than June. 

 A westerly gale swept in from the Atlantic, bringing with it 

 driving squalls of misty rain and causing a heavy "sea" on 

 the lough. Fortunately the wind was aft, but this notwith- 



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