174 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



THE VELVET SCOTER (CEDEMIA FUSCA). 



THE Velvet Scoter {(Edemia Fusca) is generally 

 designated the Velvet duck or double Scoter. 

 This fine species is also a sea duck in the most 

 extensive sense, and is a winter visitant on our coasts. 

 They are sometimes taken by the gunner, who can gener- 

 ally contrive to get quite close and well within range, for 

 the extreme shyness which is oftentimes attributed to 

 them is not a reality. They do not usually rise until the 

 pursuer is within forty yards of them. 



Their food is chiefly bivalve molusca, frequently those 

 of a very hard structure ; the strong covering of their very 

 powerful gizzard enables them easily to bruise and 

 triturate. Its range of migration is also very wide, for 

 out of Britain the continental ornithologists have found it 

 in Southern Italy. Its places of nidification are, how- 

 ever, well known, but it has been observed by northern 

 travellers in Norway, Sweden, and Scandinavia, and in 

 Lapland it is common everywhere. In North America 

 it is also migratory. 



Plumage entirely of a deep velvet black, except a pure 

 white spot on the lower eyelid, which passes behind the 

 eye in the form of an acute angle, and the tips of the 

 greater covers, which are of the same colour, and show a 

 bright and strongly contrasting bar across each wing ; on 

 the head and neck the colouring is without lustre and 

 soft ; the base and margin of the bill are black, the other 

 parts bright orpiment-orange ; inside of the tarsus 

 carmine-red, toes orange-red, the membranes black. 



In the female the plumage is brownish-black, paler on 

 the under surface, on the auriculars a patch of greyish 

 white ; the bill and legs have not the vivid colouring of 

 the male. 



The young much resemble the female during the first 

 year, the white spots on the head being apparent ; the 

 feet beginning to show their brilliant colour. 



