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TPIE VELVET SCOTER. 
reference to two black patches surrounded with orange at 
the base of the bill. About twenty inches is the general 
length of this species. 
The Velvet Scoter is considerably larger than the other 
species of its genus, being about twenty-one inches in 
length ; its plumage is black, glossed with blue and green, 
and it is distinguished from the other Scoters by a white 
band across the wings. This bird is a winter visitant only 
to the shores of the British Islands. It has been killed, 
says Yarrell, in the vicinity of Dublin, in Cornwall, and 
Devonshire. Specimens were obtained in the London 
market during the winters of 1832 and 1837. It has also 
been procured in Suffolk and Norfolk. Mr. Dunn describes 
it as rare in Shetland, but common in Orkney, where it 
arrives in the beginning of winter, and retires again very 
early in the spring : it frequents the ponds in flocks of ten 
or twelve, generally feeding in the middle or deep water, 
and in the streams of the tide. It is remarkably shy, and 
great caution is required to approach it. It is a common 
bird in Denmark, Norway and Lapland, where it breeds : 
it is also found in Iceland. 
The Velvet Scoters are said to live solely on bivalve mol- 
lusca, after which they dive with great expertness. Mac- 
gillivray gives this picture of their habits : — 
When the weather is not boisterous, they fly out to sea in the 
evening, and return toward the shore or shallows early in the morn- 
ing, coming generally in small flocks of from flve to fifteen or twenty. 
They fly very low, or at a moderate height, with considerable speed, 
moving their extended wings quickly, and on arriving at a suitable 
place relax their speed a little, and alight on their hinder end, the 
body being kept oblique. They then trim themselves, look into the 
water, and commence their operations. They sit lightly on the 
water, swim with moderate speed, dive by sinking head foremost, 
rather than by plunging violently, like the fish-pursuing divers, and 
remain from one to three minutes under. It is of course beautiful to 
see a flock of any birds emerging in succession ; and I have several 
times been so near them on such occasions, as to sec pretty distinctly 
the colours of their bill and feet. If disturbed by the approach of a 
boat or other vessel, they generally dive ; but often also take to wing, 
and remove to some distance. They rise heavily from the water, 
ascending at a very small angle, and striking the surface with their 
wings for some yards. It is, perhaps, when on wing that they look 
