This species is of occasional occurrence in the more northern countries of Europe to Germany inclusive, and in similar latitudes of Asia and North America, but is very rare in both hemispheres.

I PUBLISHED the following notice of one in the 18th volume of the Annals of Natural History':

:

"A beautiful adult male of this species was shot at Ballyholme, Belfast Bay, on the 9th of September, 1846, by Snowden Corken, Esq. It was alone, about two hundred yards from the shore, allowed three shots to be fired at it before attempting to dive, and was killed at the fourth or fifth shot, on reaching the surface after having dived.* Two of these birds had, a day or two before, been observed in company in the same locality, and one individual was seen several times in the course of a few weeks after the subject of this notice had been killed. 'The weight of the specimen was 1 lb. 14 oz. ; its length, 21 inches; -wing, from carpus to point of quills, 9 inches 2 lines; tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines; middle toe and nail, 2 inches 8 lines; breadth across the wings, 27 inches;'-as noted during my absence from home, by Dr. J. D. Marshall, but for whose kindness, and the considerate attention of Mr. Darragh (curator of the Belfast Museum), I might not have had the opportunity of seeing the bird, and certainly

Audubon remarks, that "it is an uncommonly shy bird, and therefore difficult to be obtained, unless shot at while on wing, or when asleep, and, as it were, at anchor on our bays, or near the shore; for it dives as suddenly as the velvet and scoter ducks, eluding even the best percussion-locked guns."-Orn. Biog.,' vol. iv. p. 163.

could not have known the kind of food which it procured on our coast, or the form of its trachea. The contents of the stomach, preserved for my inspection, consisted of ten perfect specimens of the bivalve shell, Nucula margaritacea, from small to adult size, and a portion of the shell of a very large Solen pellucidus, with fragments of the shells of other species. The bay where this bird was shot, is of a sandy nature, such as Wilson remarks to be frequented by the surf scoter on the coast of North America. 'Spoutfish [Solen] and small bivalve shell-fish,' according to him, are its principal food;-one of the only mollusca that he particularizes was therefore found in the present individual. As the species of Nucula mentioned is generally dredged in from three to five fathoms (18-30 feet) water in Ballyholme Bay, we must suppose that the bird dived to that depth to obtain these shell-fish-a supposition in accordance with Audubon's remark, that this duck 'is frequently observed fishing at the depth of several fathoms.'

"All the general descriptions of the colours of the surf scoter sufficiently mark the species, but none that I have read gave me a proper idea of the beauty of the head and bill-more especially of the latter, -as exhibited in this bird. Its entire plumage is of a rich black colour, with a reddish violet reflection, excepting the pure white marking in front of the head between the eyes, and that of the same colour extending down the nape. The former is heart-shaped, 11⁄2 inch in length, and the same in breadth; the latter occupies 23 inches in length, is 10 lines in breadth at the top, and gradually narrows downwards to a point. The irides are pure white. A peculiar and handsome feature is presented in the plumage advancing so far down the ridge of the bill as to be half-way between its lateral base and the tip, and in a vertical line with the nostrils. The whole of the elevated portion of the upper mandible next the frontal base is of a carmine-red, shading into rich yellowish-orange, which occupies the portion from the nostrils forward to the unguis, this being of a paler shade of the latter colour. The anterior half of the space between the nostrils and the lateral base of the bill are white, of a pearly lustre; the

posterior half chiefly occupied by a nearly square black spot (7 lines in diameter), in a 'setting,' as it were, of three colours; the portion of the mandible between it and the lateral base (a line in breadth) being carmine-red; that above it, gamboge-yellow; below it, white, of a pearly lustre, as it is anteriorly. Under mandible white, except towards the nail, where it is orange; nail, a mixture of white and brownish-orange. Legs and toes deep red, inclining a little to orange, and blotched more or less with black; this latter being the colour of the webs and nails, with the exception of one nail, which is white.

"A very full description of the trachea of the surf scoter, with measurements of the different portions, is given by Audubon (vol. iv. p. 166), who correctly remarks, that it presents the same structure as that of the velvet duck (Oid. fusca).

"The specific differences, however, seem to me worthy of being figured-which, in so far as I am aware, has not yet been doneand for that purpose I have made a drawing of the trachea of the present specimen, This, for the sake of comparison with that of the velvet duck, figured by Yarrell, has been drawn on the same scale. It will be seen from my figure, that the surf scoter, as well as the species just named, exhibits within the upper expansion of the trachea "an aperture on each side," &c., as particularly noticed in the case of the velvet duck by Mr. Yarrell (B. B. vol. iii. p. 219, 1st edit., or p. 316, 2nd edit.).”

The figure alluded to, and measurements of the different parts of the trachea, will be found in the Annals,' vol. xviii. p. 370. "Although the peculiar form of the trachea, as well as the external characters generally, place this species next to the velvet scoter, yet in the form of the bill the two species differ very considerably. This difference has been admirably pointed out by Mr. Selby in the following words :-'In this species [Oid. perspicillata] the bill has not that flatness and expansion in front of the nostrils that are so conspicuous in Oid. nigra and Oid. fusca, but assumes, in a great degree, the characters of the succeeding genus Somateria (Eider), by the tip being suddenly contracted, and the nail (which is also more convex than in the other species)

being brought to a narrow rounded point; the entering angle of the forehead also projects, as in the common eider, as far as the nostrils. The lateral parts of the bill at the base are very tumid, and are particular from the marking there displayed, these swellings being entirely exposed, and not in part concealed by the feathers, as in the velvet scoter.'* The highly arched form of the bill above the nostrils requires, however, especial notice.† In the absence of a figure, some idea may perhaps be given by the following two notes of its depth :

Depth of bill at base of ridge where plumage terminates-16)
lines from tip

Depth of bill at 10 lines from tip.

Length of bill above (not following curve)

Length of bill to rictus

Length of bill to base of lateral protuberances

Breadth of bill between the lateral protuberances

in. lin.

"The specimen which has furnished the subject of this communication was in course of being preserved for Dr. Charles Cupples, of Lisburn, who, on being informed of its rarity, liberally presented it to the Belfast Museum.

"The surf scoter is known only as a British species from its having been obtained at the Orkney and Shetland Islands, with the exception of one individual, recorded by Mr. Gould as obtained in the Frith of Forth, and a recently shot one, sent to Mr. Bartlett for preservation,' as noticed in Yarrell's work, vol. iii. p. 322, 2nd edit.; but the locality where it was killed is not mentioned the 'Naturalist,' vol. iii. p. 420, is referred to for the original notice of this specimen.

"Wilson (briefly) and Audubon (very fully) give interesting

* Illust. Brit. Orn.,' vol. ii. p. 335.

Yarrell's figure of this species is admirable, with the single exception that the peculiar form of the bill is not represented. The arched profile of the upper mandible in the specimen under consideration (probably from its being a very old male) is still more strongly marked than in Mr. Selby's figure, representing a male bird of life size.

descriptions of the habits, &c. of this species, which is common on the North American coast, increasing in numbers northward."

IN the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1835' (p. 79), I noticed a specimen as having been shot at Clontarf, near Dublin, on the 2nd of December, 1833. In March 1834, Mr. Glennon informed me that he had, in the course of many years, received only two fresh specimens which were killed in Ireland;— and subsequently mentioned that one was shot on the river Liffey in the winter of 1837-38. A fine male bird was got at Portrane, on the Dublin coast, on the 13th of January, 1838. This species was procured in Wexford harbour previous to 1836, when the circumstance was made known to me.* An immature velvet scoter obtained in September 1847 at Dublin, in a recent state, has the white mark on the wing, but no white on the head; the plumage of the breast is of a mottled white and blackish-brown. It does not agree with the description of a young male, and is, I presume, a young female;-which I have not seen described. This specimen, with the adult bird already noticed, from Portrane, is in the University Museum, Dublin: both were purchased in a recent state by Mr. R. Ball. Mr. R. J. Montgomery, writing from Queensborough, Drogheda, in March 1849, mentioned that a velvet scoter had been killed in the bay there "last winter," and informed me, on May the 10th, that an adult female had been taken that day on a hook set by a fisherman in Drogheda Bay.

* Major T. Walker.