THE SURF SCOTER 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 83 
Winter 
Visitors 
If yon cliance to be aboard a vessel steaming up the Hudson River 
late in October you may see, if you keep a sharp lookout, many flocks 
of wild ducks. If you examine these through a field-glass you will 
probably discover some that appear larger than others, and that many of 
them are black. Watch closely for such birds, for these large black ducks 
of the open waters are pretty sure to he Surf Scoters. They do not 
remain here long, and after the middle of November 
are rarely seen on the Hudson River. At this season 
they also frequent the water of Lake Champlain, and 
to some extent other lakes and rivers, particularly along the sea-board ; 
they are numerous too at some places on the Great Lakes. 
The Scoters come down from the north with the general movement of 
the feathered hosts that are fleeing before the freezing advance of the 
Ice King. Being particularly fond of open water, few, indeed, are the 
individuals that care to linger in lakes and rivers which may freeze. 
Hence if we want to find the Surf Scoter in winter we must journey down 
by the sea. Out in the rolling Atlantic, off Long Island, they are usually 
numerous at this season, and also may be met with along the New Eng- 
land coast, where they begin to arrive early in September. They occur 
along the coast southward as far as South Carolina, and some have been 
known to wander to Florida. In tbe Pacific Ocean, off Washington and 
Oregon, they are even more abundant than in the Atlantic, and at times 
go as far south as northern Mexico. 
Of the three species of Scoters found in North America it is possible 
that this is most abundant. E. W. Nelson mentions a flock found by 
him near Stewart Island, Alaska, which formed a continuous bed of 
black bodies sitting closely together on the water over 
an area that averaged more than half a mile in width, 
and about ten miles in length. This observation was 
made late in the breeding season, and apparently all the birds were males. 
When rising from the water the noise from their wings was like the con- 
tinuous roar of some gigantic cataract. The species must have been very 
numerous for these were all males, and we must remember that females 
and young were doubtless in far greater numbers in the neighborhood. 
The summer home of the Surf Scoter is in the far North ; none is 
known to rear its young in the United States. Those occasionally found 
within our borders in summer are either cripples, as the result of winter 
shooting, or are non-breeding individuals. They nest in suitable situa- 
tions north of a line drawn through Laborador, northern Quebec, Great 
329 
Huge 
Flocks 
