THE VELVET-SCOTER. 

 CEdemia fusca, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 51. 



This sea-duck visits us in autumn in fair numbers, but it is not nearly so 

 plentiful as the Common Scoter, and is more often seen off the eastern and 

 southern coasts of Great Britain than in our western waters. It appears to be 

 most numerous among the Orkneys, but never breeds in the British Islands, 

 although a few odd birds have been seen occasionally on the east coast of Scot- 

 land during the summer months. The summer home of the Velvet-Scoter is in 

 Northern Europe and western Siberia, where it frequents fresh-water lakes, which 

 it leaves as winter approaches for the seas of Western Europe, and also the Black 

 and Caspian Seas. 



The nest, thickly padded with down, is generally placed in some hollow on 

 dry ground, under the shelter of willow-scrub or bushes, sometimes, according to 

 Seebohm, "on the tundras at some distance from water." The eggs, varying from 

 eight to ten in number, are of a creamy-white colour. 



The Velvet-Scoter, besides being more of a deep-sea diver, is able to withstand 

 rougher and more exposed waters than the common species, and goes down to a 

 considerable depth after its food of mussels and other marine creatures. It may 

 easily be recognised by the white eye-spot and band of the same colour on the 

 wings. 



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