DUCKS. 67 



VELVET SCOTEE. (Edemia fiisca (Linnaeus). 



A rare winter visitant. Mr. J. H. Gumey thinks 

 it appears rarer than it really is, from its habit of 

 keeping out some miles at sea. 



In Orkney it seems to be an annual winter visitant. 

 Messrs. Baikie and Heddle remark* that it arrives in 

 September and October, remaining until the spring, 

 and frequenting the bays and firths in flocks generally 

 of from ten to twenty. 



EIDEE DUCK. Somateria mollissima (Linnaeus). 



Kesident in Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, the 

 coasts of Scotland, and the coast of Northumberland, 

 occasionally migrating as far south as the English 

 Channel. The southernmost breeding-station is be- 

 lieved to be Coquet Island. 



SMEW. Mergus albellus, Linnaeus. 



A winter visitant, but not numerous, and never seen 

 in large flocks like many of the other Ducks. 



EED-BEEASTED MEEGANSEE. Mergus serrator, Lin- 

 naeus. 

 Resident in Scotland and Ireland, where it breeds 

 on the small islands in the lakes ; a winter visitant 

 to England. Mr. J. H. Gurney informs me that he 

 once saw an adult male of this species in summer near 

 Lowestoft. 



* Hist. Nat. Orcadensis (1848), p. 79. 



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