ii8 British Diving Ducks 
Golspie and the mouth of the Little Ferry, the whole bay a scene of noise and excitement 
with their merry calls and games. In hard winters they go a short way up into the 
Little Ferry. Next we come to the Dornoch Firth, about whose sandy bars they feed on 
the small cockles, but they do not come far up into the Firth, and we only find them on 
the true sea fringe at intervals along the east coast of Ross-shire. At the entrance of the 
Moray Firth we only find a few about Nairn and Forres, and they do not ascend this Firth 
beyond Fort George, but they are plentiful again all along the Banff, Aberdeen, and Forfar 
coasts. On the north side of the Tay estuary from Carnoustie to the Broughty Ferry 
Castle they occur in winter in great numbers, and I have seen over 2000 there in one day 
off Monifieth. Broadly speaking the Tay estuary seems to be the limit of the adults on 
the eastern coasts of our islands, for although parties of old birds may be found in winter 
all the way south to Norfolk, the flocks are usually composed of immatures. I have seen 
very few adults in St. Andrews Bay or the Eden estuary, where young birds are numerous. 
Off the entrance of the Forth immatures are also abundant, and I have seen a hundred 
and more in a day off Leith. Immatures are also found in flocks off Musselburgh, about 
North Berwick, and south to Dunbar. On the Borders they are regular visitors to the 
mouth of the Tweed, and flocks of adults as well as immatures are found regularly on 
the Northumberland coast about Holy Island and the Fames. From this point south- 
ward a few, mostly immatures, are always found on the coasts of Yorkshire, Lincoln- 
shire, and Norfolk. In hard winters it is an irregular visitor to the coasts of Somerset, 
Devon, and Dorset. 
To the Welsh coast it is a somewhat rare winter visitor (H. E. Forrest, Fauna of 
North Wales, p. 290), but it again becomes more frequent on the coasts of Lancashire, 
Cumberland, and the Solway. The West Coast of Scotland is not suitable to its habits, but 
small flocks of adults are regular visitors to the islands of lona, Mull, Islay, and Skye (on 
the west side). The species is abundant on the western coasts of N. and S. Uist and 
Harris, where I have seen considerable numbers, nearly all adults. On the west coast of 
Sutherland I have seen a few about the mouth of the Naver at Bettyhill. 
In Ireland the species is an irregular visitor in small numbers, " and has been recorded 
more or less frequently from nearly all our maritime counties, but oftener from northern 
Ulster and the north coast of Connaught than from the south of Ireland, where it is rare" 
(Birds of Ireland, Ussher and Warren, p. 210). Mr. Warren has noticed a bird of this 
species in May on the Moy estuary, and Mr. Lloyd Paterson has seen three adults on 
Belfast Lough in the same month [ibid., p. 211). Most of the examples killed in Ireland are 
immatures. In October 1856 Mr. Warren saw a flock of fifty birds, the largest number seen 
together in Ireland, in the Moy estuary, and considered that the species is not so common 
as it used to be {ibid.^ p. 211). 
Continental Europe. — In winter the species is very common on the whole of the coastal 
regions of the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark, and Russia. They also assemble in great 
numbers in the Baltic and on the northern coasts of Germany, especially off the shores of 
Prussia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Holstein, and the mouth of the Elbe. When the 
Baltic is frozen they move on to the North Sea, and are numerous on the west coast of 
Jutland. On the coasts of Holland and N. France they are scarce. Some few move as 
far south as lat. 40°, and are occasional visitors to the Swiss and Italian lakes as well as 
