VELVET SCOTER.
HWYAD FELFEDOG, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
VELVET DICK.
Anas fusca, PENNANT. MONTAGU.
Oidemia fusca, FLEMING. SELBY.
Anns—A Duck. Fusca—A dark colour—brown.
THE native regions of this Duck arc the northern' parts of Europe,
Asia, and America, it is numerous in Russia and Norway, and occurs
also in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Lapland, Sweden, Denmark, Tlolstein,
1 [olland, Pomerania, Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland. Thus
again in Siberia and Kamtsehatka; as likewise in Labrador, Hudson's
Bay, and the countries about it, stretching sometimes as far south as
Georgia.
They breed in ' central Norway on the lakes and ponds in the
vicinity of the sea; on the islands and between the rocks of the bays
of Bothnia and Finland; and arc particularly plentiful on the Lake
Ladoga. The male and female appear in pairs long before the breeding
season, and are apparently inseparable.'
I n Yorkshire, one was shot at I Sent ley, near Doncastcr, by the
gamekeeper of Sir W. B. Cooke, Bart.; another on the coast in the
winter of 1851, as Mr. William Felkiu, Junior, of Carrington, near
Nottingham, has informed me: it is obtained occasionally on the moors
near I[uddersfield; at times also, but seldom, near Burlington. In
Oxfordshire, specimens have been seen near Oxford in severe winters.
I n Berkshire, one near Wargrave, in January, 1795. In Cornwall,
the species has occurred occasionally near Falmouth, on the Uiver Truro,
and the Carrick Roads. One, a female, at Helford, December 4th., 1850.
In Suffolk, a male bird was procured at Aldborough, in January,