420 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATIDiE. Genus GEdbmia. 



Subfamily FuLiGULiN^. 



COMMON SCOTER. 



(BDEMIA NIGEA— (Lmn^tts). 



Anas nigra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 196 (1766). 



Oidemia nigra (Linn.), Maegill. Brit. B. v. p. 140 (1852). 



(Edemia nigra (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 663, pi. 449 (1877); Yarrell, Brit. B. 



ed. 4, iv. p. 472 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xii. (1892) ; Salvadori, Cat. 



B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 401 (1895) ; Sharps, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 43 (1896). 

 Puligula nigra (Linn.), Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 602 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and 



Eggs Brit. B. p. 242 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 51, pi. 14 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. —British .- This Scoter is a common 

 winter visitor to our area, especially on the eastern coasts, from the Shetlands 

 and Orkneys to the mouth of the Thames, in all suitable districts, and thence 

 round the southern coast of England, although not in such vast numbers. 

 Comparatively speaking it is much less common on our v?estern coast line, the 

 flat shores of Lancashire and the Solway district being its chief head-quarters. 

 It is most abundant in the north of Ireland, becoming more sparingly distributed 

 in the vyest and south. Small niimbers of immature non-breeding birds frequent 

 the British coasts during the summer, and a few pairs of adults are known to 

 breed in the north of Scotland, in Caithness, Sutherland, and Eoss-shire. It 

 is also recorded as having bred in 1897 on the island of Tiree. This Duck 

 is recorded (Science Gossip, 1891, p. 256) as having bred on Earnley Marshes, 

 near Chichester, but further confirmation of the fact is much to be desired. 

 Foreign : Northern and western Palaearctic region, more southerly in winter. 

 It breeds in the Arctic regions of Europe and Western Siberia, from Iceland 

 to the Taimur Peninsula, as far north as lat. 74,° and as far south as the 

 Arctic Circle, and in a few localities at high elevations below it where similar 

 climatic conditions prevail. It is found during winter in the Baltic and the 

 basin of the North Sea, exceptionally as far south as the Azores, and only very 

 sparingly in the Western Mediterranean as far as Italy. It was said by Pallas 

 to visit the Black Sea, and is reputed to be common in the Caspian Sea, whilst 

 it has been obtained on the coasts of Palestine during winter. 



