BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 295 
The Common Scoter nests in northern Europe and Siberia 
as far as the Taimyr district and sparsely in the north of 
Scotland, and in one locaHty in Ireland.. In winter it is 
common on the sea-board of most parts of western Europe 
and is found less abundantly in parts of the Mediterranean 
and Caspian Seas. 
THE VELVET-SCOTER. CEdemia fusca (Linns^vLs). 
An uncommon winter-visitor to the Solway Firth. 
This species is observed among flocks of Common Scoter 
on the Solway, in about the proportion of one to three 
hundred, and when seen thus in company it may be readily 
distinguished by the white bar on its wing, which makes the 
adult males somewhat resemble an old Blackcock. In those 
seasons, as in 1881, 1882, and 1883, when the Common 
Scoter is plentiful, this species also occurs more numerously. 
It is essentially a maritime bird and the following record by 
Richard Bell of Castle O'er, from a locality some eighteen 
miles inland, is therefore remarkable. He states : " I saw 
one of these birds on the River Esk in front of Billholm 
House either in 1870 or 1871, I think. It was easily dis- 
tinguished from the Black Scoter by the white bar on the 
wing and the white round the eye. It was not at all shy and 
may have been an escape."* Mr. R. Service records that 
on October 29th, 1902, he received a fine Velvet-Scoter " that 
had been shot the same morning by the side of the Nith 
below Dumfries, and some five or six miles from the open 
firth. That it had not long left the sea was shown by 
the fact that its stomach was crammed with shells of 
Tellina. . . this is the first local occurrence inland of 
the Velvet-Scoter that I have met with."t 
* My Strange Pets, p. 152. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1903, p. 50. 
