124 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



victims to the gunners. Nuttall, writing in 1834, says^ that "when they have 

 been seen in Fresh Pond, which they sometimes visit, at least the young, their 

 heads have been observed nodding, as though they were oppressed by sleep ; 

 and we sometimes here have a saying of being as sleepy as a Coot." 



Mr. O. A. Lothrop has given me a finely mounted adult male of this spe- 

 cies, which was obtained at Fresh Pond in the autumn of 1899. It appeared 

 there on October 29 and was seen daily up to November 4 when it was picked 

 up dead near shore by the Park policeman. A still more recent instance of 

 occurrence at this pond is that of a flock of six birds which I saw on November 

 26, 1900. They circled low over the water several times and then flew off 

 towards the eastward. 



Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., writes me that the White-winged Scoter occasion- 

 ally visits Spy and the Mystic Ponds. I have an impression that I saw an adult 

 male, many years ago, swimming in the Back Bay Basin near West Boston 

 Bridge, but my notes contain nothing to confirm this recollection. 



38. Oidemia perspicillata (Linn.). 

 Surf Scoter. Gray Coot. 



Transient visitor in autumn. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



October 13, 1868, one im. taken, Fresh Pond, C. E. Chenery. 



October 23, 1893, five seen, four taken, Lower Mystic Pond,^de G. B. Frazar. 



Mr. George B. Frazar tells me that on October 23, 1893, a flock of five 

 Surf Scoters alighted in the Lower Mystic Pond. He shot one of them, and 

 three of the remaining four were killed by another gunner. I have met with 

 this species only twice at Fresh Pond — on October 13, 1868, and October 17, 

 1870. On each of these occasions a solitary young bird came in at daybreak 

 and was quickly shot. 



Mr. Alfred S. Swan of Arlington writes that "in times past a few Gray 

 Coot used to drop into Spy Pond during hard 'northeasters'" and that he 

 killed " nine out of a bunch of forty, one morning." The females and young of 

 the present species are invariably called ' Gray Coot ' by our local gunners, but 



' T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Water Birds, 

 1834, 421. 



