STJEF SCOTEE. 



Oidemia perspicillata, .... Fleming. 



Anas perspicillata, ..... Linn^tjs. 



Canard marchand, .... Temmis"ce:. 



Oidemia. Oidema — A swelling; as if referring to the inflated base of the bill. Perspicillata. 



Quasre, Perspicio — To see plainly; on account of the distinctness of the species. 



This is an extremely rare bird in this country; in England one was procured in a 

 recent state, by Mr. Bartlett, of London, in, we believe, 1838; and in the winter of 

 1845, a mutilated specimen was found by W. P. Cocks, Esq., on the beach near the 

 Magazine, Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, as recorded in "The Naturalist" for 1851. 

 Specimens occasionally occur in Orkney and Shetland; and with respect to the latter 

 islands, Mr. Eobert Dunn, of Helister, thus writes in the "Zoologist," for 1848 : — "Last 

 summer, in June, as I was collecting through the north part of Shetland, I observed a 

 very rare British visitor, namely a fine male specimen of the Surf Scoter, in 'Eona's 

 Yoe,' in company with some Ked-breasted Mergansers. I tried to get a shot at it for 

 three days in succession, but was unsuccessful, as it always got on the wing before we 

 could get within gun-shot of it, and the fourth day I never saw it at all." On September 

 9th., 1846, Mr. Thompson says one was shot at Ballyholme, Belfast Bay, by Snowden 

 Corken, Esq. ; it was alone, about two hundred yards from the shore, allowed three shots 

 to be fired at it before attempting to dive, and was killed at the fourth or fifth shot, 

 on reaching the surface, after having dived. 



A few specimens seem to have been obtained in Germany, Scandinavia, and Picardy, 

 but they have been only stragglers; the natural haunts of this species being North 

 America, where they are common. Wilson says "They continue on our shores during 

 the winter, and leave us early in May for their breeding-places in the north. They are 

 shy birds, not easily approached, and are common in winter along the whole coast from 

 the River St. Lawrence, to Florida." 



Their flesh is rank, coarse, and fishy. 



In their general habits, they do not materially differ from the preceding species, but, 

 according to Wilson, they are altogether confined to the shores and bays of the sea, 



2 H 



