EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 51 



Mallard, though the eggs of these species resemble those of the 

 Long-tailed Duck very closely. The eggs range in colour from 

 pale huffish-green to greenish-buff, and vary in length from 22 

 to 2'0 inches, and in breadth from 1'6 to 1'45 inch. 



THE BLACK SCOTEE. 

 (Fuligula nigra.)* 



Plate 14, Fig. 1. 



A few pairs of the Common or Black Scoter breed in Caithness, 

 Sutherland and North-west Koss-shire, and it has even been 

 supposed to nest as far south as Sussex. 



The breeding-range of the European form of the Common 

 Scoter extends from Iceland, through Northern Europe and West 

 Siberia, to the Taimur Peninsula. It is a more northern species 

 than the Velvet Scoter, breeding from lat. 74° down to the Arctic 

 Circle, below which it is rarely found, except at a high elevation. 

 In the valley of the Petchora we never procured the nest on the 

 islands in the delta, but either near a lake on the tundra or on 

 the sloping river-bank, concealed amongst the dwarf birch or 

 willow-scrub. The nest was a mere hollow scraped in the ground, 

 lined with a few broken twigs, dead leaves, and dry grass, but 

 containing plenty of down. The eggs, usually eight, but some- 

 times nine in number, are pale greyish-buff, considerably darker 

 than those of the Wigeon, smooth in grain, but having little 

 gloss. They vary in length from 265 to 24 inches, and in 

 breadth from P8 to 1*75 inch. The down of the Black Scoter 

 very closely resembles that of the Mallard, but is a trifle greyer ; 

 it is somewhat smaller than that of the Velvet Scoter, and in the 

 latter the white centres are not quite so conspicuous. The eggs 

 appear to be always smaller than those of the Velvet Scoter, 

 and generally smaller than those of the Goosander ; they are 

 not always absolutely distinguishable from the latter, but in 

 nine cases out of ten they may be identified by their weight. I 

 have never met with blown eggs of the Common Scoter that 

 weighed quite so much as a quarter of an ounce, and of the eggs 

 of the Velvet Scoter and Goosander I have only met with one 



* CEdemia nigra— Saunders, Manual, p. 453; Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 43. 



