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ANATIDjE. 
THE BLACK OK COMMON SCOTER. 
Black Duck. 
Oidemia nigra, Linn, (sp.) 
Anas ,, „ 
Is a regular visitant to certain localities on the coast. 
The places of its regular or occasional occurrence known to me 
shall be noticed from north to south. At Malin Head, the 
extreme northern point of Ireland, and Portrush, near the Giant's 
Causeway, it has been obtained ; — at the latter locality in March 
1840.* One, killed at Dundrum, on the coast of Down, on the 
13th of March, 1824, came under my notice, and three of these 
birds were seen in the river which falls into the bay there in 
the winter of 1831-32. t Numbers of scoters were observed at 
Lurgan Green, county of Louth, so early in the autumn as 
August 1839.J I had seen a specimen — one of five — killed near 
Dundalk, a few years before that time. 
The fullest information respecting the scoter has been com- 
municated to me by R. J. Montgomery, Esq., and relates to 
Drogheda Bay. In the months of September and October of 
1842, 1843, and 1844 (in August also of the last year), flocks, 
amounting to some hundred individuals, were seen there by that 
gentleman in the course of a day, forty to fifty birds at least 
being generally in one flock. In other years, also, they came 
under his notice, but were not so plentiful ; not nearly so in the 
winter of 1848-49, when the information respecting the species 
was supplied to me. They are well known to all the fishermen 
by the name of “ black ducks," and are often captured on their 
hooks. They formerly frequented the mouth of the river, but 
are now generally to be seen farther out in the bay. 
My correspondent remarks : — “ I have been endeavouring to 
ascertain the reason of the diminution in numbers of the scoters 
* Colonel Portlock, R.E. f The late Mr. John Montgomery. 
% Mr. H. H. Dombrain. 
