254 
ANATIDiE. 
rusty brown. Lower part of breast, white, mottled with pale 
browiiisli grey, gradually becoming browner towards the under 
tail coverts, which are dark rusty brown. Tarsi and toes olive 
green ; membranes and claws black. The peculiar trachea of 
the Scoter is precisely as in the excellent figure in Yarrell. 
[Obs . — Xo place is given in the MS. to the Surf Scoter (0. 
Ijerspicillata). In Mr Gray’s “ Birds of the West of Scotland” 
allusion is made to a statement of Mr J. H. Dunn purporting 
that in an excursion upon Eona’s Yoe, in Shetland, in June 
1847, he several times saw an adult male of the species. I 
can find no other trace of support to the assertion of several 
authors, as quoted by Yarrell, that this bird occurs in Shet- 
land. — Ed.] 
THE POCHAED. 
Fidigula ferina. 
The Pochard is another winter visitor, coming in small flocks, 
but its appearance is very uncertain. A few also return in 
spring, but apparently only for the purpose of resting upon 
their way ; for they often arrive in the evening and leave early 
next morning, and this happens in the roughest as weE as the 
finest weather. They are extremely shy, and for this reason 
seldom alight upon the lochs in the daytime, preferring the 
wide sheltered bays, and keeping far out of shot from the shore. 
One October day I saw the first arrived flock of Pochards, 
seven in number, flying up and down the voe, and at last 
marked them down in a small sandy bay near Himie, where I 
watched them for a long time, showing off their strange habit 
of fluttering along the surface of the water, and splashing it 
about with their wings. MTien in flight they may at once be 
recognised, even at a long distance, by their light-coloured 
bodies and dark heads and wings. 
