THE SURF SCOTER. 
119 
could not have known the kind of food which it procured on our 
coast, or the form of its trachea. The contents of the stomach, 
preserved for my inspection, consisted of ten perfect specimens of 
the bivalve shell, Nucula margaritacea , from small to adult size, 
and a portion of the shell of a very large Solen joellucidus, with 
fragments of the shells of other species. The bay where this bird 
was shot, is of a sandy nature, such as Wilson remarks to be 
frequented by the surf scoter on the coast of North America. 
f Spoutfish \_Solen\ and small bivalve shell-fish/ according to 
him, are its principal food ; — one of the only mollusca that he 
particularizes was therefore found in the present individual. As 
the species of Nucula mentioned is generally dredged in from 
three to five fathoms (18-30 feet) water in Ballyholme Bay, we 
must suppose that the bird dived to that depth to obtain these 
shell-fish — a supposition in accordance with Audubon's remark, 
that this duck f is frequently observed fishing at the depth of 
several fathoms.' 
“ All the general descriptions of the colours of the surf scoter 
sufficiently mark the species, but none that I have read gave me 
a proper idea of the beauty of the head and bill — more especially 
of the latter,- — as exhibited in this bird. Its entire plumage is of 
a rich black colour, with a reddish violet reflection, excepting the 
pure white marking in front of the head between the eyes, and 
that of the same colour extending down the nape. The former 
is heart-shaped, inch in length, and the same in breadth ; the 
latter occupies 2J- inches in length, is 10 lines in breadth at the 
top, and gradually narrows downwards to a point. The irides 
are pure white. A peculiar and handsome feature is presented 
in the plumage advancing so far down the ridge of the bill as to 
be half-way between its lateral base and the tip, and in a vertical 
line with the nostrils. The whole of the elevated portion of the 
upper mandible next the frontal base is of a carmine-red, shading 
into rich yellowish-orange, which occupies the portion from the 
nostrils forward to the unguis, this being of a paler shade of the 
latter colour. The anterior half of the space between the nostrils 
and the lateral base of the bill are white, of a pearly lustre ; the 
