240 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1920 
Red-breaster merganser (male) 
Mergus serrator 
Hooded merganser (male and female) 
Lophodytes cucnllatus 
American merganser (male) 
Mergus americanus 
and feet, dull ochre. Range: Arctic re- 
gions, south on Atlantic to New Jersey; 
Great Lakes. Not found on Pacific south 
of Alaska. Not abundant.* 
The Pacific eider and the spectacled 
eider are very similar birds, found only 
in Alaska. 
THE SCOTERS 
T HESE ducks have many traits in 
common with the eiders, with which 
they are often found associating. 
They are sea lovers, although they are 
found inland as well, and are swift flyers 
and expert divers. Their diet is the same 
as the eider ducks and their flesh is like- 
wise tough and with a fishy flavor. There 
are four varieties: The surf-scoter, the 
white-winged scoter, the American scoter 
and the velvet scoter. 
Surf-scoter. — Male: Plumage, black, 
excepting triangular spot on forehead, 
with point forward, and another on nape, 
which are white; bill, red orange. 
Length, twenty-one inches. Female: 
Plumage, brownish black with white 
patch on lores and another behind ears. 
Range: North America from Atlantic to 
Pacific; south to Middle Atlantic States 
and California. Often called bay- and 
sea-coot. 
White-winged scoter. — Male: Plumage, 
black, excepting small patch under eye 
and speculum on wing white; bill, black, 
red and white; legs and feet, scarlet. 
Length, twenty inches. Female : Black- 
ish brown ; white spots on head ; bill, 
dusky; legs and feet, flesh color. Range: 
Northern portions of North America on 
both coasts, south to Chesapeake, Illinois 
and Lower California. 
American scoter. — Male: Entire plum- 
age black; bill, black, orange on basal 
half ; legs and feet, black. Length, about 
nineteen inches. Female: Sooty brown 
above, soiled white underneath; bill, 
black; sometimes marked with yellow; 
legs and feet, olive brown. Range : 
North America on Atlantic and Pacific, 
Arctic regions to New Jersey and Cali- 
fornia; interior south to Great Lakes. 
Called also black coot, whistling coot and 
has other local names. 
The velvet scoter is given in the check- 
list as an old-world bird occasionally 
visiting our shores. Its general appear- 
ance is velvety black and the speculum 
or wing mirror is white. 
The scoters or coots and the eiders are 
often hunted in an arduous and rather 
exciting manner from a line of small 
boats anchored far out at sea. The fowl 
are shot as they fly over the line of 
boats. Since the ducks fly best in stormy 
weather, the sport is often attended with 
much hardship and sometimes danger. 
In clear, calm weather the coots and 
eiders, with the old squaws, are in the 
habit of remaining on the waves some 
distance from shore and it is next to im- 
possible to get near them. However, on 
a wild, stormy day the fowl are mostly 
on the wing and often follow certain lines 
of flight, and then offer shots as they fly 
past or over the hunters. 
A sufficient number of sportsmen are 
enlisted to form a line of boats. Each 
shooter has his boat, and if he so desires, 
a bayman to do the rowing or tend the 
engine and handle the boat in general.* 
The start is made early in the morning 
and the shooters proceed to their re- 
spective positions in the line which has 
been determined by drawing numbers the 
night before. The boats are placed so 
that a duck passing midway between two 
of them will be just within range of both. 
Decoys are seldom used. Those who 
shoot from the outer end of the line are 
often two or three miles from shore, 
sometimes much further. 
As may well be imagined, the sport 
calls for very skilful shooting, since the 
anchored beats are often tossed about by 
a heavy sea and the ducks are always un- 
der full headway when they pass. One 
must not only be a good duck shot but a 
good sailor as well. Sea-sickness and 
good shooting are far from synonymous. 
The old hands who are accustomed to 
*It is now unlawful to shoot ducks from any 
boat propelled by means other than oars. 
Surf-scoter (male) Oidemia verspicillata 
being at sea in a small boat and who can 
preserve an even balance do most if not 
all of the killing. The sportsman new 
to the game will use many shells before 
he bags a single duck, and perhaps wish 
himself on shore in the bargain.. The 
weather may not only be stormy but bit- 
ter cold as well, and the heaviest clothes 
are needed to protect one against the 
chilling winds which sweep unobstructed 
over the open sea. 
The coots and eiders are protected by 
heavy outer feathers and a thick cover- 
ing of down next to the skin. They are 
difficult birds to kill at once at any dis- 
tance further than medium ranges, and 
a wounded bird is next to impossible to 
secure. 
The sportsman who owns a 10-gauge 
gun may use it to advantage. Number 
2 shot or larger may be used in the 10- 
or 8-gauge; number 2 to number 4 is 
proper in the 12-gauge. 
After the coots are brought to bag, 
they are as difficult to pluck as they are 
to eat. Sore fingers and an outraged 
stomach may be counted upon. So the 
hunting must be worth the fun, for cer- 
tainly the game is not worth the work. 
Scoters and eiders are sometimes shot 
from the beaches on points of the coast 
which reach far seaward, and there they 
often come to the decoys. They are oc- 
casionally shot over decoys on the bays 
and .sounds, as well as on the larger in- 
terior lakes, by sportsmen hunting other 
ducks. 
THE MERGANSERS 
T HE mergansers are given in the 
check-list as a separate family of 
the order swimmers. They are 
readily distinguished from the ducks by 
their slim, serrate spike-like bills. They 
are all fish-eating birds and dive and 
swim rapidly under water in pursuit of 
small fish, which their saw-edged bills 
enable them to catch. The two largest 
have a fishy flavor and are undesirable as 
food. There are three species : The 
American merganser, the red-breasted 
merganser and the hooded merganser. 
All are very handsome birds, and as they 
fly very rapidly they offer excellent 
marks. 
The American merganser — This bird is 
handsomer than the other mergansers 
less common than any of them. Male: 
Head and upper neck, glossy, greenish 
black; lower neck, breast and wings, 
