The Common Scoter 
57 
{cf. Meade Waldo, Ibis, 1903, p. 214; Irby, Orn. Sir. Gibraltar, p. 230; Field, Feb. 23, 
1878), while J. I. S. Whitaker says it is a rare casual in Tunisia (B. of T., p. 220). Loche 
says it is common on the Algerian coast in winter (Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois., ii. p. 386). 
O. nigra americana visits Corea, Japan (Ogawa, List, p. 349) ; and in N. America 
winters on the E. side from Newfoundland to N. Carolina, and casually to Florida ; on the 
W. side from the Aleutian Isles to California. 
Habits. — The adult males of this very gregarious species leave the breeding grounds 
in the north earlier than any of the diving ducks, and are often seen in parties in the Baltic 
at the beginning of August. It is possible, however, that these are birds which have not 
migrated north in the previous spring. A few also come to the British coasts at the end 
of August, and many scattered parties in September. In late October the adult females 
and young appear, and when they have reached their regular winter quarters assemble 
together in enormous flocks. Where they are most numerous, such as on the north coasts 
of Holland and France, I have seen immense flights of these birds, numbering many 
thousands, sitting on the sea, and often covering a line over a mile in length. When on 
journeys to Vienna via Ostend in the month of August, in the years 1909-19 10, I saw 
quite a number of Common Scoters in parties from Calais to Ostend. These were birds 
of all ages, but were mostly males, from adults to young birds of the previous year. I 
presume they were individuals which had been there all the summer, as I have also seen 
them off Calais in May in equal numbers. It seems to be a fact, and one that has not 
been noted, as far as I am aware, that in the case of all the species of Scoter a certain 
number, even adults (though I cannot speak for certain as regards adult females), do not 
migrate north in the spring, but stray about singly or in parties on the grounds of their 
winter habitat. There is not a month in the year that these Common Scoters cannot be 
seen in the Channel and the east coasts of England and Scotland, and I have observed 
Velvet-Scoters in Orkney in every month. Whilst on a visit to British Columbia, I saw 
numbers of single young and adult males of the Surf-Scoter and the White-winged Scoter 
[Oidemia deglandi) in July and August, and was informed that they were numerous all 
through the summer in the channels between Vancouver Island and the mainland. They 
were all non-breeding birds that had not proceeded to the breeding grounds. 
On migration a few Common Scoter, generally young birds, are driven out of their 
course and take temporary refuge on large sheets of fresh water, and so it is not unusual 
to hear of these ducks being killed even at such a place as Patshull, which is in the very 
centre of England. 
The Common Scoter is a true lover of the sea, but does not like broken water or 
skerries such as are frequented by Eiders and Velvet-Scoters, but open stretches of sea not 
far from the coast, where the water is not deeper than 12 to 15 feet. They resort to 
estuaries and open spaces on the coast, situated above both sandbanks and flat mussel-beds, 
and will feed continuously in the same place unless driven off by rough weather, in which 
case they will come close in under the lee of the coast, and even ascend estuaries for a 
considerable distance. I have shot many well up the Eden estuary as they flew between 
narrow channels, but only after very rough weather, which had driven them from their 
usual feeding ground in St. Andrews Bay. 
One of the best days I ever had at sea-ducks was in November 1887, when, hiring a 
VOL. II. H 
