294 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
This species is more abundant with us in some seasons 
than in others, and its movements are at all times affected by 
the tides. Scoters come all along the foreshore to Annan 
Water-foot, and in 1881, 1882, and 1883 they were observed m 
thousands. " Mabie Moss" described a Common Scoter 
in such full moult on September 7th, 1889, that it could not 
flv * and the same observer records a most unusual congrega- 
tion of the species off Southerness in June, 1891. They were 
estimated at from ten to twenty thousand.t and at so late 
a date such a quantity is all the more extraordinary. A 
flock of Scoters and Scaup-Ducks of about two thousand 
in number was seen off our shores on April 19th, 1906.1 
The above observations, it will be seen, hail mostly from 
the neighbouring county of Kirkcudbright ; but, as has 
been explained, the species is so dependent on the tides tor 
its food, that it is ever and again shifting its quarters and 
may therefore be in and out of whatever may be considered 
our county limits at sea, within the twenty-four hours. 
A Common Scoter was obtained at the Carse Loch^ 
(Dunscore) twelve miles from the sea, in October, 1862, an 
unusually inland locahty for the occurrence of this species 
It is remarkable that Sir WiUiam Jardine, writing in 1843 
of the Common or Black Scoter, states : " This species we 
consider in Scotland at least as more uncommon than the 
last "II (i.e., the Velvet-Scoter). T. C. Heysham wrote of 
the Common Scoter three years previously as a species <)t 
common occurrence in most parts of the country. H and 1 
am at a loss to know why Sir WiUiam was not better 
acquainted with a bird which, judging from the writmgs of 
contemporary observers, must have been of common 
occurrence in Scotland, and presumably also on the Solway. 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, September 17th, 1889. 
t Op. ciu, June 30th, 1891. 
I Tullie House Museum Registers. 
§ Grierson's MS. Notes, October 17th, 1862. 
II Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., p. 166. 
% Faurvi o) Lakeiand, 1892, pp. 301, 302. 
