The Surf-Scoter 
83 
has been secured, should be stopped ; for if once their eyes have become fixed on the decoys, they will 
usually come to them if flying low down near to the water. 
" . . . I have rarely heard the Surf-Scoter make any sound, and then only a low guttural croak 
like the clucking of a hen ; they are said to utter also a low whistle, 
. . In the spring mating begins before the northward migration, as I have taken eggs from 
females between April 15 and 25, which varied in size from a cherry-stone to a robin's^ egg. 
During this period the duck, when flying, is always closely followed by the drake, and wherever she goes 
he follows. If she is shot he continues to return to the spot until also killed. 
** I have often, on firing at a flock, shot out a female ; the moment she commences to fall, she is 
followed by her mate. He remains with her or flies off a short distance, only to return again and again 
until killed, regardless of previous shots fired at him. 
" I have never seen any such devotion on the part of the female ; she always uses the utmost speed 
in flying away from the spot, and never returns to it. 
"In regard to the abundance of each kind of Scoter it is difficult to judge, but I lean to the opinion 
that the Surf-Scoter is the most numerous ; next the White-winged, and lastly the American, I think 
there is little difference as to the numbers now and formerly, but during the southern migration, unless it 
is thick and stormy weather, they pass further out from land than formerly, owing to their being shot at. 
" When migrating they fly very much higher in calm than during windy weather, and if there is any 
difference in the elevation of their flights at such time I should say the Surf-Scoter flew the highest (with 
the exception of those White-winged Scoters which migrate west in May)." 
N. S. Goss, writing in the Auk (vi. p. 123), states that their food consists chiefly of 
shell-fish (chiefly mussels), fish, &c. They rise from the water in the usual running and 
laborious Scoter fashion, and seem to be as much at home in rough as in calm water. 
When feeding I have noticed that they follow one another quickly under the sea with 
a somewhat clumsy splash, some of the flock reappearing just as others are going down. 
Concerning the actual courtship, during which the males make a low whistle,^ and 
the females a rough grating call, I have no complete information, but some *'show" 
undoubtedly takes place before the main "spring" migration from the loth to the 25th 
of April. Notes on their nesting habits are also very scarce. In Hudson Bay Surf- 
Scoters repair to small ponds and lakes at no great distance from the sea, and here the 
female makes her nest of dry grass or other plants generally in an open situation. 
Audubon seems to have been the first to find and record the nest of this species 
in Labrador. He describes (Birds of America, vii. p. 49) the summer habitat and nesting 
places as follows : 
"After we had anchored in the lovely harbour of Little Macatma, I had been anxiously searching 
for the nest of this species, but in vain ; the millions that sped along the shores had no regard to my 
wishes. At length I found that a few pairs had remained in the neighbourhood ; and one morning while 
in company of Captain Emery, searching for the nests of the Red-breasted Merganser over a vast oozy 
and treacherous fresh-water marsh, I suddenly started a female Surf-Duck from her treasure. We were 
then about five miles distant from our harbour, from which our party had come in two boats, and fully 
five and a half miles from the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The marsh was about three miles in 
length, and so unsafe that more than once we both feared, as we were crossing it, that we might never 
reach its margin. The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass and raised fully 
four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of withered and rotted weeds, the former being 
circularly arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded cavity six inches in diameter by two and 
a half in depth. The borders of this inner cup were lined with the down of the bird, in the same manner 
as the Eider-Duck's nest ; and in it lay five eggs, the smallest number I have ever found in any duck's 
^ I.e. the egg of the American " Robin," Turdus migratprius. 
^ E. W. Nelson mentions a " low clear whistle " which is used as a call note in the breeding season. 
