70 British Diving Ducks 
be capable, however, of standing as much buffeting by wind and weather as the hardy- 
Eiders and Long-tailed Ducks, and will ride out great storms at sea without coming in 
for protection. 
I have never seen the Velvet-Scoter on shore in winter, and am told by observers 
who live in the neighbourhood of the lakes and in Norway, where they breed, that the 
males seldom if ever go to land in the summer, and only females, when they have nests 
or are searching for nesting-places, do so. Those that I have seen in confinement walk 
more clumsily than any other duck, and seem to trip and stumble over their own feet 
as if this mode of progression was unusual. When standing on shore the body is held 
horizontally, but as soon as the bird begins to walk the breast is held in a very erect 
position, and progress is slow and heavily laboured. They often fall to the ground 
and rest if pressed to move forward. 
The Velvet-Scoter has no superior in swimming and diving. Its powerful legs and 
feet enable it to pass rapidly beneath the water, and reach the bottom at depths of 40 
feet, and even more. They seem to prefer to search for their food in deep places, probably 
because mussel-beds situated in such spots are far off-shore, and consequently safe. I 
do not think they use the wings under water, at any rate to the same extent as the Eider. 
There are occasions when Velvet-Scoters come up the narrow estuaries to mussel-beds 
situated amongst narrow and shallow channels, and I have on two or three occasions 
noticed larger numbers coming in from the deep sea and passing up to places that 
should scarcely be frequented by such a true sea-duck. These movements were 
always performed in perfectly still and frosty weather, and the flocks consisted almost 
entirely of adult females or young birds. Twice on the Eden estuary, when waiting near 
the exit of the channels at the sea-bar, I have seen over 200 of these birds follow in 
small flocks the in-shore movement of Golden-Eyes, Scaup, and Common Scoters, and 
could in no way account for their sudden partiality for land-locked waters. After shooting 
some specimens, I have followed them up with the tide and have found them feeding 
in little mud and mussel bays, with a few yards of the "banks" in water that was not 
over 6 feet in depth. These birds finding their retreat cut off from the sea displayed a 
greater foolishness or want of resource than any sea-ducks I have met, and I was able 
to "jam" them into corners from which they appear to be fearful to rise. I was thus 
able to look them over carefully, and select any specimen I wished. Adult female Velvet- 
Scoters are by far the rarest to obtain, in proof of which I may state that so far without 
exception all the specimens figured by Saunders, Gould, Dresser, &c., are all immature 
females. These adult females I found plentiful on the Eden during these excursions to the 
land-locked mussel-beds, and at no other time have I seen more than an occasional adult 
female amongst the flocks of males on the east coast of Scotland, or in the Orkneys. 
In the case of the Velvet-Scoters we have another good instance of the curious 
distribution of the sexes on our coasts during the winter season. In the Orkneys and 
Shetlands quite 98 per cent, of these birds seem to be adult males. I have only once seen 
and killed a young male in the Orkneys, and females are scarce. 
Writing on this point, Mr. H. W. Robinson {Field, Jan. 5, 1907) says : 
"The greatest difference of all, however, is shown in the case of the Velvet- Scoter, where drakes 
outnumber ducks by twenty or even thirty to one ; indeed in Orkney it is very difficult to get a female of 
