BIRDS . 305 



SURF SCOTER 



CEdemia perspicillata (L. ). 



The only example of this transatlantic duck that has been 

 obtained within the strict limits of Lakeland is the adult drake 

 which was shot by a farm servant on a pond at Crofton, 

 November 2, 1856, a few months before the death of T. C. 

 Heysham. He secured the bird, and probably examined it in 

 the flesh, because he preserved the trachea and sternum, which, 

 in the natural course of things, would have been thrown away. 

 The specimen went to the hammer with the rest of Heysham's 

 birds in May 1859, and was purchased by the late Mr. Gurney. 

 It is now the property of his son, Mr. J. H. Gurney of Keswick 

 Hall, Norwich. The trachea and sternum were included with 

 the mounted bird as - Lot 176' of the sale catalogue, but by an 

 oversight the trachea was retained at Carlisle. Quite recently 

 a clerk in Messrs. Mounsey's office in Carlisle handed to me for 

 examination a small cardboard box which had been found among 

 some papers. It proved to contain the trachea in question, 

 together with a note in Heysham's hand, stating that it was the 

 trachea of the Surf Scoter shot at Crofton in 1856, and perhaps 

 the only trachea of this rare duck then in England. 



It is a little surprising that this bird should have been killed 

 at Crofton, because the locality is about seven miles in a • bee 

 line' from both the estuaries of Esk and Eden and those of 

 Wampool and Weaver. All the other British examples have 

 been shot, or washed up dead, on the sea-coast. 



Mr. Heywood Thompson recently showed me a specimen of 

 the Surf Scoter in the plumage of the young male, which he 

 shot on the N.W. coast of England, although south of our limits, 

 i.e. on the Kibble, opposite Lytham, December 9, 1882. It was 

 recorded as a female bird (Zool 1884, p. 29), but it was not 

 sexed. I have therefore no hesitation in pronouncing it to be 

 in male dress. This bird is deep brown in colour, with a slight 

 whitish mark before the eye, a more decided whitish mark 

 behind the eye, and a long white patch on the hind-neck, as 

 extensive as in an old male, although not of course nearly so 

 pure in tint. 



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