SPECIES 16. ^NAS NIGE^. 
SCOTER DUCK. 
[Plate LXXII.— Fig. 2.] 
Le Macreuse, Biuss. vi, p. 420. pi. S8. Jig. 2.— Buff, ix, p. 234. pL 
16. — FI. Enl. 978. — Bewick, ii, p. 288. — .Arct. Zool. JV*o. 484. 
— Lath. Syn. iii,p. 480. — Peale’s Museum, JV*o. 2658;* 
This Duck is but little known along our seacoast, being more 
usually met with in the northern than southern districts; and 
only during the winter. Its food is shell fish, for which it is 
almost perpetually diving. That small bivalve so often mention- 
ed, small muscles, spout fish, called on the coast razor handles, 
young clams, &c. furnish it with abundant fare; and wherever 
these are plenty the Scoter is an occasional visitor. They swim, 
seemingly at ease, amidst the very roughest of the surf; but fly 
heavily along the surface, and to no great distance. They rarely 
penetrate far up our rivers, but seem to prefer the neighbour- 
hood of the ocean; differing in this respect from the Cormorant, 
which often makes extensive visits to the interior. 
The Scoters are said to appear on the coasts of France in 
great numbers, to which they are attracted by a certain kind 
of small bivale shell fish called vaimeaux, probably diflfering 
little from those already mentioned. Over the beds of these 
shell fish the fishermen spread their nets, supporting them, 
horizontally, at the height of two or three feet from the bottom. 
At the flowing of the tide the Scoters approach in great num- 
bers, diving after their favourite food, and .soon get entangled 
in the nets. Twenty or thirty dozen have sometimes been taken 
in a single tide. These are sold to the Roman Catholics, who 
* Jlnasnigra, Gmei. Sijst. i, p. 508, Ao. I. — Ind. Ont. p. 848, .Vo. 43 . — Tbmjt. 
Man. d’Orn. p. 856 — Peale’s Musexm, .A/’o. 2659, female. 
