FAM. L. DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS 



295 



Surf Scoter 



Length,. 22 ; wing, 11 (IQi-llJ); tail, 4h ; tarsus, 2; culmen, IJ. 

 Northern North America ; breeding in Labrador and westward, and 

 wintering south to Virginia, southern Illinois, and Lower California. 



26. Surf Scoter (166. Oid^mia perspicillata). — A black duck, 

 with a square white blotch on the crown and a triangular one 

 on the back neck. The orange and 

 yellow bill has a round black spot on 

 the side back of the nostril. The feath- 

 ers on the culmen extend forward almost 

 to the nostril, while those on the side of 

 bill do not. The female is almost every- 

 where sooty-browm, paler beloAV, and 

 whitish on the belly ; the sides of the head have whitish spots 

 at base of bill and on cheeks. The female has not such a bulg- 

 ing base of bill nor such an extension of feathers on the 

 culmen. (Sea Coot.) 



Length, 20; wing, 9| (9-10); tail, 4; tarsus, If; culmen, \\. North- 

 ern North America, on coasts and inland waters ; breeding from the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence northward, and wintering south to Virginia and the Ohio 

 River, and casually to Florida. 



27. Ruddy Duck (167. Erismatura jamaicensis). — A com- 

 mon, and. in fidl dress, brightly colored, black-crowned, white- 

 cheeked, chestnut- 

 backed duck, Avith 

 wary white and 

 gray breast and un- 

 der parts, and a 

 short, black tail of 

 narrow, stiff, sharp- 

 pointed feathers. 

 The female (also 

 the male as usually 

 found) has a dull 

 r e d d i s h - b r o w n 



Kuddy Duck , , • i i-j. 



■^ back, grayish-white 



cheeks Avith a dusky bar extending back from the bill, and the 



