. Coloured illustrations of British birds, and their eggs . the beak is brown, the legs olivaceous grey; the eyeshazel. The egg figured 253 is that of the Summer Duck. 118 ANATJD/E. NATATORES. AS ATI DM. PLATE CCLIV. BLACK SCOTER. OIDEMIA NIGRA. The Black Scoter is a winter visitant in Great Britain, andprincipally found on our rocky shores; its geographical dis-tribution extends over the northern parts of Europe, Asia,and America ; it passes the summer months in high northernlatitudes, where it breeds, and migrates southward, to evadethe inclement season of the north, as far as the UnitedStat
. Coloured illustrations of British birds, and their eggs . the beak is brown, the legs olivaceous grey; the eyeshazel. The egg figured 253 is that of the Summer Duck. 118 ANATJD/E. NATATORES. AS ATI DM. PLATE CCLIV. BLACK SCOTER. OIDEMIA NIGRA. The Black Scoter is a winter visitant in Great Britain, andprincipally found on our rocky shores; its geographical dis-tribution extends over the northern parts of Europe, Asia,and America ; it passes the summer months in high northernlatitudes, where it breeds, and migrates southward, to evadethe inclement season of the north, as far as the UnitedStates in America, the central parts of Siberia in Asia,and in Europe, to our shores, as well as those of the Baltic,Holland and France. The numbers that visit the before-named European shoresare so great, particularly during a continuous north-westwind, that they appear in clouds, and cover the surface of thewater, literally, to a great extent. The adult males leave the breeding places about the endof July ; the young birds migrate in August, and the greater. /r te • id: BLACK SCOTER. 119 numbers of intermediate ages, and the females, follow soonafter ; thus the larger flights arrive in September and the latter end of March and the beginning of April, thenorthern migration takes place. The Black Scoter is soexclusively partial to the sea, that it chooses lakes, ponds andbogs, in the immediate vicinity, for the purposes of breeding,and returns again to the sea as soon as its young ones areready to swim after it. The food of this bird consists in Crustacea, bivalves,mollusca, and other marine animals and insects ; to obtainwhich it is constantly diving. It is remarkable how loner the Black Scoter can remainunder water in pursuit of its prey; and this fact is well knownto the fishermen upon the coast of France, who, placingtheir nets horizontally, from two to three feet above thebeds of shell-fish, to which these birds resort, catch, bythat means, great numbers for the t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookidcoloured, booksubjectbirds
