BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 69 



The same gentleman says that he has seen quite a number of 

 them flying over the level prairies in the vicinity of Herman, 

 and he has shot several without suspecting it was a rare species 

 in the State. The section mentioned where those were obtained 

 is a level prairie for a long distance, and abounds with shallow 

 ponds so much exposed as to make them the safest of resorts 

 for water birds in general, with which it verily swarms in their 

 flocking seasons. It was through Mr. Washburn's courtesy 

 that I learned of this pair of King Eiders having been obtained. 

 As the locality is a favorite hunting resort of mine, and Mr. 

 P. H. Clague resides there, a friend who loves ducks (to eat) 

 as well as I do ( to list, ) 1 propose to settle this regal question 

 if it takes a good many duck- seasons to do it in. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Body and wings, black; the portion anterior to the shoulder 

 joint, interscapular region in part, most of neck and throat, 

 white; jugulum. with a creamy tinge; a narrow border to the 

 frontal process of the bill and their interspace, small space 

 around the eye and a V-shaped mark on the chin, black; top of 

 head and nape bluish-ash, slightlj' spotted with black; middle 

 wing coverts, tips of secondaries, axillars, most of under sur- 

 face of wing, and a patch on each side of the rump, white; 

 sides of head glossed with transparent emerald-green; the 

 scapulars have the black tinged with slate. 



Length, 21.50; wing, 10.70; tarsus, 1.85; commissure, 2.53. 



Habitat, northern North America. 



OIDEMIA AMERICANA Swainson & Richardson. (163.) 

 AMERICAN SCOTER. 



Only occasionally observed about our smaller inland lakes, 

 these Ducks are not uncommon in the vicinity of Duluth on 

 Lake Superior in pairs or quite small parties. Sportsmen 

 familiar with the seacoast Ducks tell me they sometimes meet 

 the Scoters, or "Coots" in considerable numbei'S on the shores 

 of Mille Lacs lake. In the winter of 1867 and '68, and again in 

 1874 and '75, I found several of them in openings where spring- 

 brooks entered the streams, as I did also in the turbulent rapids 

 below the Falls of St. Anthony. I have in a few instances seen 

 individuals of both sexes in the collections of the local taxider- 

 mists. I am informed by Mr. Holzinger of Winona, that one 

 specimen is in the possession of Professor Heaton, of the Nor- 

 mal school at Winona, which he obtained on the Mississippi, 

 just above that city. My observations embrace only the sea- 



