m 
ANATIDJffi. 
descriptions of the habits, &c. of this species, which is common 
on the North American coast, increasing in numbers northward.” 
THE VELVET SCOTEE. 
Velvet Duck ; Double Scoter. 
Oidemia fusca , Linn, (sp.) 
Anas ,, „ 
Is an occasional winter visitant to the coast. 
In the f Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1835 J 
(p. 79), I noticed a specimen as having been shot at Clontarf, 
near Dublin, on the 2nd of December, 1833. In March 1834, 
Mr. Glennon informed me that he had, in the course of many years, 
received only two fresh specimens which were killed in Ireland ; — 
and subsequently mentioned that one was shot on the river Liffey in 
the winter of 1837-38. A fine male bird was got at Portrane, 
on the Dublin coast, on the 13th of January, 1838. This species 
was procured in Wexford harbour previous to 1836, when the 
circumstance was made known to me.* An immature velvet scoter 
obtained in September 1847 at Dublin, in a recent state, has the 
white mark on the wing, but no white on the head ; the plumage 
of the breast is of a mottled white and blackish-brown. It does 
not agree with the description of a young male, and is, I pre- 
sume, a young female; — which I have not seen described. This 
specimen, with the adult bird already noticed, from Portrane, is in 
the University Museum, Dublin : both w r ere purchased in a recent 
state by Mr. E. Ball. - Mr. E. J. Montgomery, writing from 
Queensborough, Drogheda, in March 1849, mentioned that a 
velvet scoter had been killed in the bay there “ last winter,” and 
informed me, on May the 10th, that an adult female had been 
taken that day on a hook set by a fisherman in Drogheda Bay. 
Major T. Walker. 
