122 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



larger until the fall migration occurs. Males may be found in the marshes 

 with females all through the season, but these are pairs which breed late. 

 A set of fresh eggs was taken on August 3, and a brood of downy young was 

 obtained on September 9. The habits of these flocks of males are very similar 

 to those of the male eiders at this season. They are good weather indica- 

 tors, and frequently, 10 or 20 hours in advance of a storm, they come into the 

 sheltered bays, sometimes to the number of a thousand or more. At such 

 times they show great uneasiness, and frequently pass hours in circling about 

 the bay, sometimes a hundred yards high and again close over the water, the 

 shrill whistling of their wings making a noise which is distinctly audible 

 nearly or quite half a mile. Until the young are about half grown the female 

 usually keeps them in some large pond near the nesting place, but as August 

 passes they gradually work their way to the coast and are found, like the 

 eiders of the same age, along the reefs and about the shores of the inner 

 bays until able to fly. 



Regarding the care of the young, Audubon (1840) says: 



I afterwards found a female with seven young ones, of which she took such 

 effectual care that none of them fell into our hands. On several occasions, 

 when they were fatigued by diving, she received them all on her back, and 

 swimming deeply, though very fast, took them to the shore, where the little 

 things lay close among the tall grass and low tangled bushes. In this species, 

 as in others, the male forsakes the female as soon as incubation commences. 



Plumages. — The downy young, when first hatched, is dark colored 

 above, varying from " Front's brown " or " verona brown " to " bis- 

 ter," darkest on the crown and rump; the throat and cheeks, below 

 the lores and the eyes, are white ; the under parts are grayish white 

 centrally, shading off on the flanks into the color of the upper parts ; 

 the bill is broadly tipped with dull yellow. The plumage appears 

 first, when about half grown, on the breast and scapulars; the tail 

 appears next and the wings are the last to grow. 



The following remarks are based largely on two papers by Gurdon 

 Trumbull (1892 and 1893) and one by Dr. Jonathan Dwight (1914) 

 on the molts and plumages of the scoters, all of which are well worth 

 reading, and to w^iich I would refer the reader for details. In the 

 Juvenal plumage the sexes are practically alike, the female averaging 

 slightly smaller. The upper parts, including the crown, back, wings, 

 and tail, are deep, rich brown, varyifig from " Front's brown " to 

 "mummy brown," darkest on the scapulars and tertials and palest 

 on the neck, chest, and flanks, where it fades into the light color of 

 the under parts ; the lower half of the head and the belly are grayish 

 white, mottled with lighter browns. This is the plumage in which 

 the birds are known to the gunners as " gray coots " ; it is worn dur- 

 ing the fall and often well into the winter without change. Some- 

 times as early as November, but more often not until January or 

 later, the sexes begin to differentiate ; a growth of black feathers be- 

 gins in the head and neck of the young male and a similar growth of 

 brown feathers appears in the young female. The growth of black 



