302 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



in most parts of the country.' Dr. Gough recorded this species 

 in 1848 as visiting Windermere in July, and in 1861 he wrote 

 of it as occasionally met with on the Kent. Mr. Hind son, in 

 in his MS. Notes, speaks of this duck as 'common on Hawes- 

 water.' I closely observed a Common Scoter at Monkhill 

 Lough in January 1889. R. Raine had observed a similar bird 

 at Whin's Pond in the previous December. Others have been 

 shot at different times in the neighbourhood of the higher 

 waters of the Eden. T. C. Heysham notes a Scoter killed near 

 Rickerby in August 1849. But though often met with at a 

 considerable distance from the sea, this Scoter is most abundant 

 in the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay, where it frequents the 

 well-known cockle beds, and is often netted by the Flookburgh 

 fishermen. Many Scoters are to be seen at sea between Fleet- 

 wood and Walney Island. The Barrow gunners are fond of 

 running out towards Fleetwood to have a few shots at the 

 ' Black Duck.' Williams assures me that within the last thirty 

 years this Scoter was much more numerous in the neighbour- 

 hood of Barrow than has been the case of late years. He 

 ascribes this apparent decrease to the birds having been driven 

 away by the steamship traffic. 



Flocks of Scoters frequent our open coast-line during all the 

 winter months, but of late years their visits to the English 

 Solway have been irregular. The species has never been 

 numerous in the higher waters on our side of the Firth, though 

 I have seen Scoters flighting along the Scottish side near Annan. 

 When they visit our side Silloth Bay is their chief feeding- 

 ground. A certain number of these birds appear to pass the 

 summer on our coast, including adult drakes. Mr. W. Duckworth 

 sent me an old drake in moult, shot near Silloth in the first 

 week of September 1886. The new quills were only half 

 developed, and the black feathers of the breast and wing coverts 

 were variegated with light brown. William Railton killed a 

 similar bird about the 25th of August 1888, on the Eden, near 

 Cargo. Mr. J. N. Robinson had observed it for some days 

 previously, but had abstained from shooting it, because it was 

 incapacitated for flight by the loss of its old flight feathers. 

 Mr. Nicol reported to me that a large flock of Scoters appeared 



