198 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



young birds as " Morillons," a name that has certainly 

 been applied to more than one species in days gone 

 by ; ornithologists, however, are now well satisfied 

 that with regard to the present bird the name 

 *' Morillon " is a distinction without any difference 

 of species. 



192. COMMON SCOTER. 



(Edemia nigra. 



Although many reports of the occurrence of the 

 Scoter in our county and its immediate neighbourhood 

 have reached me at various times, I can only give the 

 following details regarding three of such occurrences, 

 viz. : — One killed on Blatherwycke Pond on July 24, 

 1873, and reported to me in 1876, by Mr, de Staff'ord ; 

 another shot by a gamekeeper in the employ of 

 Mrs. Stopford Sackville, of Drayton, near Woodford 

 Mill, about August 18, 1879, and sent to me in an 

 almost putrid condition ; this bird was an adult 

 female, and I presented the skin to our Natural 

 History Society in June 1880. The third was shot 

 by Mr. G. Hunt, of Wadenhoe, on our meadows 

 near Aldwincle, during one of the heaviest floods 

 that I can remember on the Nen, on October 8, 1880 ; 

 this was a young female in very poor plumage. It is 

 a remarkable fact that many, I think I might say the 

 majority, of the recorded occurrences of this sea-iow\ 

 inland in England have taken place in summer or 

 early autumn. My own acquaintance with the Scoter 

 is confined to the sight of many in the Channel at all 

 times of the year, and the pursuit of small flocks that 

 frequented the harbour of Santander in November 

 and December 1878 ; but the species is exceedingly 



