(E demia nigra (Linnaeus *).
THE COMMON SCOTER,
Oidemia nigra.
(Edemia, Fleming+ .—Bill swollen or tuberculated at the base, large, elevated,
and strong; the tip much depressed, and terminated by a large flat nail,
rounded and slightly deflected at the extremity ; mandibles laminated, with the
plates broad, strong, and widely set. Nostrils lateral, elevated, oval, placed
near the middle of the bill. Wings rather short, pointed. Tail short, graduated,
acute. Legs far behind the centre of gravity ; tarsi short; feet large, of four
toes, three in front, and one behind. Outer toe as long as the middle one,
and much longer than the tarsus; hind toe with a large lobated membrane.
The Common Scoter is principally a visitor to the
British coasts in winter, at which season, especially on the
eastern side of Scotland and England, it is often to be found
in numbers exceeding those of any other species of Duck.
At times the waters between the Eastern Counties and
Holland are black with them; and large flocks are to he
* Anas nigra, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 196 (1766).
t Oidemia, Fleming, Philosophy of Zoology, ii. p. 260 (1822).
observed throughout the entire length of the English
Channel. Comparatively few approach the shores, or enter
the bays, except in coarse weather; hut storm-driven birds
are occasionally to be found on inland sheets of water. On
the western side of England and Scotland it is less abundant.
In spring the majority of our winter visitants take their
departure for the north-east of Europe; hut a certain number
remain to breed in the boggy swamps of Caithness. Mr. J.
Watson states (Zool. s.s. p. 1867) that he saw three pairs of
birds, and obtained a female with nine eggs, at Strathmore;
and a few also breed in Sutlierlandshire and Inverness-shire.
In Ireland, Sir R. Payne-Gallwey states that on the
northern marine loughs and in the hays, especially at Belfast
and Dundalk, Scoters abound every winter: and sometimes
they are to he seen in thousands. On the west coast
they are considered uncommon, and in the south more than
six or eight are seldom seen together.
The Scoter visits the Fseroes, and breeds sparingly in
Iceland. In Norway, Sweden, and Northern Russia, it is a
generally distributed species during the summer; and on
the coasts and some of the inland waters of the rest of
Europe, it occurs with tolerable regularity in winter. On
the northern shores of France it is excessively abundant,
and some remain there throughout the year. Westward its
migrations extend to the Azores; it is very common off the
coast of Portugal in winter, and it visits the south of Spain
and the shores of North-western Africa ; but it is very rare
throughout the rest of the Mediterranean.* It appears to
pass along the valley of the Volga to the Caspian; and
Canon Tristram says it is found on the coast of Palestine in
winter. Its breeding-range probably extends across the
mainland of Northern Asia ; for Von Middendorff shot a
pair nesting on the Boganida; but in Japan and the North
* In French the ordinary name of the Scoter is Macreuse, but in Provence
the term is applied to the Coot (Fulica atra). Ignorance of this fact led the
Author to publish in former Editions a long account of the battues directed
against the Coots on the salt-lakes of Provence, under the impression that the
species intended was the Scoter ; the latter is, however, almost unknown there,
and has only once been recorded on the shores of Italy. —[Ed.]