The Common Scoter 6i 
local movement. At this date Common Scoters would have nests in most of their 
northern homes. 
I do not know of any account, nor have I seen the courtship of this duck. In the 
north of Scotland nests are rarely found before the beginning of June, and often not 
until the middle of the month. I found a nest at Myvatn, Iceland, with the eggs 
hard set, on July 3, 1889. In Lapland, it is said, the nest is occasionally found early in 
June, but generally in the middle of that month and onward on to July. On Spitsbergen, 
Koenig took a clutch of eggs on July 15, 1905. The nest is generally placed amongst 
heather or wet moorlands in Scotland ; in Iceland, sometimes in islands, but generally 
in dwarf scrub. The one I found was in a thicket of dwarf willow, about 20 yards 
from the Myvatn lake; little rills of water ran all round the spot, which was itself 
quite dry. The nest, which contained nine eggs, was woven of dry willow leaves and 
the dry stalks of grass, with a few pieces of what I took to be withered shoots of 
Azalea procttmbens. It was heavily lined with brown-grey down. The bird flew off 
her nest uttering a plaintive ''mewing" note. 
In North Russia the nest is often situated in marshes. Sometimes it is exposed to 
full view amongst grass tussocks, but more generally it is hidden by heather, angelica, 
dwarf birch or willow. It is nearly always placed within a few yards of a fresh-water 
lake, or on an island in a lake, and not close to the sea, but at such a distance as it 
is easy for the young to get to the sea in the autumn. They are very shy even at 
the nesting-places, the males keeping far out to the centre of the lakes, and the females 
very cunning in their movements. For this reason they do not nest near human 
habitations, as other northern breeding species often do. 
We have some recent notes contributed to the Field, July 4, 1908, by Major 
H. Trevelyan, on the subject of the nesting of this species. It gives many interesting 
details of these birds at this period of the year, and all Naturalists must hope that the 
same fate will not overtake the birds that happened to the small colony of Irish breeding 
Red-necked Phalaropes, which was raided by unscrupulous collectors. Major Trevelyan 
says : 
" In the week ending June 11, 1904, I first saw and identified a pair of Common Scoters on an Irish 
lough. Until July i, the date of my leaving the locality, they were, when I saw them, always together, 
and my boatman told me he saw them fi-om time to time till about August 18, but never apart. On May 
24 I saw a pair of Common Scoters for the first time in 1905, and on June 5 a female alone for the first 
time. On June 13, when on an island, I found a female Scoter on a nest under a sallow bush [Salix 
caprea). She allowed me to look at her from a distance of about 9 feet, but on my man advancing she rose 
and flew off. There were eight eggs, partly incubated, and all somewhat dirty. The nest was 8 inches 
in diameter at the top, inside measurement, composed of dried grass, moss, and down. It was very well 
and neady constructed. I took two eggs and a very small pinch of the down. On the 14th I again 
visited the nest. The duck was away, and the eggs carefully covered over with down, of which I took a 
good-sized pinch. I visited the nest from time to time, but never again put her off it, or even apparendy 
disturbed her. She was last seen on the nest on the 28th, but on my visiting it on the 30th she was 
away, and the nest empty, save for a few fragments of eggshell. 
"On July I, having left six eggs, I found her on the lough with five young ones. When the boat 
was within a few yards of her she uttered curiously plaintive cries, which reminded me of the mewing of 
a cat. My boatman said they reminded him of ' the talk of a teal.' Neither the mother nor her brood 
seemed to me so wild as Tufted Ducks in similar circumstances. She did not simulate a wounded bird, 
1 
