8o British Diving Ducks 
Surf-Scoter, and who was in "at the death" at no less than three of the six Orkney speci- 
mens, told me that these and two others seen were always found associating with the 
Velvet-Scoters in the islands of the Bring. 
It was an exciting moment when I first viewed this interesting duck from the 
carriage windows of the Intercolonial railway near Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. 
Numerous flocks could be seen flying quite near the shore, so I jumped out of the train 
at the next station, returned to Sydney, hired a gun and drove lo miles to a village lo 
miles north-west of Sydney, and the first morning killed four fine specimens in a couple 
of hours. The species is very abundant in most seasons from New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia to North Carolina, and I found the birds for the most part split up into small flocks 
of six to twenty, feeding and flying according to the movements of the tide. We must not 
dogmatize on the habits of any species if we only observe it in certain places, for the 
character of a bird may be regulated according to the circumstances where food, the 
ruling factor in the movements of all birds, is found locally, and where for many hours it is 
inaccessible. The actual habitat of this species is similar to the Velvet-Scoter, which affects 
mussel-banks on the edge of tideways, and not great open bays or coast-lines, like the 
Common Scoter. Both in the east and the west coast of North America, where I have 
subsequently observed them, Surf-Scoters seemed to be more restless birds than either of 
the two species found regularly in the British Isles, and this, in their true haunts, I 
attribute, not to a more restless disposition, but to the fact that, like all the other Scoters 
and the Eiders, they are of a very greedy nature, and require a large amount of food to 
supply their wants. The movements of the tide, both in the entrance of the St. Lawrence 
and on the British Columbian coasts, are very swift, and this necessitates constant changes 
of ground on the part of the birds, before, after, and at the feeding hours ; wherefore 
the little flocks are constantly flying to and fro, coming easily to wooden decoys, and 
forming a ready prey to the numerous coast gunners in their tubs or "sink-boats." I 
noticed that with an "in-shore" wind this species approached the coast-line nearer than any 
other Scoters I had previously observed. Some of the small flocks even flew over a point 
of land in spite of the fact that in such places there is usually a hidden gunner in waiting 
for them. 
The birds first observed were those that were " settled " for the winter, which would 
account for their being in small flocks, both during the period of the autumn and especi- 
ally the spring migration. Surf-Scoters assemble in enormous flocks, and often join up 
with Common and Velvet-Scoters, as well as Eiders, Long-tails, and Harlequins. Mr. 
Dresser gives an interesting account of the abundance of this species in the Bay of Fundy, 
New Brunswick, during the spring migration. He says (Birds of Europe, pp. 672-3) : 
" When living in New Brunswick I had ample opportunities of observing the present species ; for 
during the seasons of passage it was very numerous, though less so, as far as my experience goes, in the 
autumn than in the spring. In some seasons it occurs in great numbers. This was the case in 1862, 
when I spent a few days at Lepreaux Lighthouse, which is placed on a rocky point jutting out from the 
mainland into the Bay of Fundy. On my arrival there on April 25 myriads of ducks were flying 
past, among which Surf-Scoters were more numerous than any other species. They followed the line 
of the coast, at a short distance from the shore, and in passing the point generally steered close in, or 
flew over the end of the point itself. On the 26th I spent the day among the rocks ; and I never 
recollect seeing water-fowl in such countless numbers as I did on that day, all wending their way north- 
