168 
SCOTER DUCK. 
SCOTER DUCK ANAS NIGRA Plate LXXII. Fig. 2. 
Le macreuse, vi. p. 420, pi. 38. fig. 2. — Suff. ix. p. 234, pL 16. — PL EnL 
978. — Bewick, ii. p. 288. — Arct. ZooL No. 484. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 480. — 
Beale’s Museum, No. 2668. 
OIDEMIA Fleming.* 
Oidemia nigra, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 119. — North. Zool. ii. p. 450. — Bonap. 
Synop. p. 390. — Canard macreuse, Temm. Man. ii. p. 866. — Scoter, or black 
diver, Mont. Ornith. Eict. ii. and Supp. — Bew. Br. Birds, ii. p. 325. — Black 
scoter, Selby, Illust. Br. Orn. pi. 68. 
This duck is but little known along our sea-coast, being 
more usually met witli 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 
mentioned, small mussels, 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 dis- 
tance. They rarely penetrate far up our rivers, but seem to 
prefer the neighbourhood 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 bivalve shell-fish, called vaimeaux^ probably differing 
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 bot- 
tom. At the flowing of the tide the scoters approach in great 
* The plumage on the head and neck of this bird is remarkable for its rigid 
texture and the narrow hackled shape of the feathers. — En. 
