42 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIV. 



American Scoter, Oidemia americana. 

 Plate I, Figs. 1,1a. 



The adult male is solidly black without spot or 

 touch of other colour except the butter-coloured 

 swelling at base of bill. The female shows a com- 

 paratively normal duck bill, the feathering neither 

 encroached upon nor encroaching on the sides of 

 the bill. There is a more or less well defined dark 

 cap includmg the sides of the crown, contrasting 

 with the cheeks that are evenly coloured instead of 

 showing two diffused light patches as in the other 

 two scoters. 



be traced in a depressed area of soft black velvet- 

 like feathers. The sides of the bill encroaches on 

 the cheek feathering in a square shape and is 

 coloured bright yellow, red and white with a strange 

 squarish spot of black as shown. The female has 

 two lightish patches on the sides of the face like 

 the female White-winged, but the bill surface in- 

 trudes upon the feathering of the cheek in the same 

 square shape as in the male and the feathering of 

 the crown extends half way to the nostril and far 

 beyond that on the sides of the bill. The square 

 black spot at the base of the bill is indicated in the 



EIDER3 - GENUS] Somateria 

 LE5 EIDERS - GeorcJ ^^^i^^^i-ena 



H 



MALE 

 MALE 



^..-^^^ ^^^ 



FEMALE 



FEMKLLF 



.^. 



5.moUi5 5inia 

 dre-sseri 



2 a "' 



5-'no[li55ima 

 bore a I is 



3a 



3.5pectabili 



CEJOflNSON 



White-winged Scoter, Oidemia deglandi. 

 Plate I, Figs. 2, 2a, 2b. 



The prominent white wing patches (Fig. 2a) in 

 all plumages of this bird prevents its confusion with 

 any other species. The adult male is all black 

 with a white crescent under the eye, white secon- 

 daries and a bill coloured in bright reds and black. 

 The female has two vague light spots on the cheek 

 like the Surf Scoter, and the feathering of the 

 cheeks encroaches upon the sides of the bill nearly 

 to the nostrils and about as far as that of the crown. 



Surf Scoter, Oidemia perspicillata. 

 Plate I, Figs. 3, 3a. 



The adult male is an all black bird with small 

 white patches on the fore and hind crown. In some 

 changing or moulting plumages this latter is lost 

 wholly or in part but its position and outline can still 



juvenile male at an early age and before other sex- 

 ual characters are assumed. 



THE EIDERS. 



Adult male eiders are easily distinguished from 

 similar scoters by being colored in large contrasted 

 masses of black and white, the latter variously suf- 

 fused on face, fore and under parts with delicate 

 nile-green, pale slate-blue or vinaceous (pinkish). 

 Comparable scoters are nearly solid black, relieved 

 only by restricted, sharply defined patches of pure 

 white about head and on wings. 



Female eiders are colored with mixtures of black, 

 brown, ochre and rusty in various proportions, tend- 

 ing towards fine streaks on face, coarser ones and 

 V-shaped markings on back and broken bars across 

 breast and flanks. The cross barring across the up- 

 per breast of the females is sufficiently distinctive 

 of the eiders to separate them from any other duck 



