THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
met with in some of the central states, the Bermudas and Jamaica; it 
is also believed to breed on the shores of Bering Sea, and is said to be a 
straggler to North-east Siberia and to Greenland; while eastwards it 
has been occasionally met with in Western Europe from Scandinavia and 
Finland as far south as the north coast of France. 
Distribution in the British Isles . — To the British Isles it is a rare wanderer 
during the colder months of the year, and seems to be most frequent 
in the Orkney Islands, where quite a number have been observed and 
six obtained from time to time. As might be expected, most of the 
other records are from Ireland and the western and southern shores of 
Great Britain, but one example at least has been obtained in the Firth 
of Forth. 
Nest and eggs . — ^The nesting-habits of this species are very similar 
to those of the common scoter, and the eggs, which measure about 2 '25 
by 1 ‘6 inches, are laid towards the end of June. 
As its name implies, this species is quite at home among the surf, 
to which it is specially partial, feeding on small molluscs, which are 
obtained by diving. 
VELVET-SCOTER 
(EDEMIA FUSCA 
(Plate XXIX, Fig. 2) 
Oidemia fiisca, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 377 (1837). 
(Edemia fusca. Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 657, pi. 448 (1877) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. 
Birds, part xxii, pi. (1892) ; Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 406 (1895) ; Saunders, 
III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 467 (1899). 
DULT male. — General colour velvety-black; a small white 
patch beneath and behind the eye; secondary quills and 
/ the tips of the greater secondary coverts white; inner 
/ webs of the primary quills, except towards the tips, 
f brownish; the quills, though sharply pointed, are not 
-^C ikfc. attenuated. Iris white; bill orange-red, with the basal 
portion of the culmen as far as the nostrils, the posterior border and 
edges black; legs and toes scarlet, membranes and joints blackish. 
348 
