118 
ANATIDiE. 
This species is of occasional occurrence in the more northern countries 
of Europe to Germany inclusive, and in similar latitudes of Asia and 
North America, but is very rare in both hemispheres. 
THE SURE SCOTER. 
Surf Duck. 
Oidemia persplcillata, Linn, (sp.) 
Anas „ ,, 
Has been once obtained. 
I published the following notice of one in the 1.8th volume of 
the ‘ Annals of Natural History* : — 
“A beautiful adult male of this species was shot at Bally- 
holme,, Belfast Bay, on the 9th of September, 1846, by Snowden 
Corken, Esq. It was alone, about two hundred yards from the 
shore, allowed three shots to be fired at it before attempting to 
dive, and was killed at the fourth or fifth shot, on reaching the 
surface after having dived. - * Two of these birds had, a day or 
two before, been observed in company in the same locality, and 
one individual was seen several times in the course of a few weeks 
after the subject of this notice had been killed. ‘The weight of 
the specimen was 1 lb. 14 oz. ; its length, 21 inches; wing, from 
carpus to point of quills, 9 inches 2 lines ; tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ; 
middle toe and nail, 2 inches 8 lines ; breadth across the wings, 
27 inches/ — as noted during my absence from home, by Dr. J. 
D. Marshall, but fo* whose kindness, and the considerate atten- 
tion of Mr. Darragh (curator of the Belfast Museum), 1 might 
not have had the opportunity of seeing the bird, and certainly 
* Audubon remarks, that “ it is an uncommonly shy bird, and therefore difficult 
to be obtained, unless shot at while on wing, or when asleep, and, as it were, at 
anchor on our bays, or near the shore ; for it dives as suddenly as the velvet and 
scoter ducks, eluding even the best percussion-locked guns.” — ‘ Orn. Biog.,’ vol. iv. 
p. 163 . 
