129 



OIDEMIA PERSPICILLATA. THE SURF SCOTER. 



BLACK DUCK. SURF DUCK. GREAT-BILLED SCOTER. 



Anas perspiciUata. Linn. Sys. Nat. I. 201. 



Anas perspiciUata. Lath. Ind. Omith. II. 847. 



Canard Marchand. Anas perspiciUata. Temm. Man. d'Ornith. II. 853. 



Surf Scoter. Oidemia perspiciUata. Selby, lUustr. II. 335. 



Oidemia perspiciUata. Surf Scoter. Jen. Brit. Vert. Anim. 240. 



Oidemia perspicUlata. Bonap. Comp. List. 57. 



3Iale with the bill having a gently sloping protuherance in 

 front, the very large lateral prominences hare, the ujjper man- 

 dihle with a nearly square black patch on each side at the base, 

 margined with orange, unless anteriorly, where there is a 

 bluish-white patch, the prominent p)art over the nostrils red- 

 dish-orange, paler at the margins, the sides toward the end red, 

 the unguis greyish-yellow ; the lower mandible jlesh-coloured, 

 with the unguis darker ; tarsi and toes orange-red, webs dusky ; 

 plumage deep black glossed with blue ; a patch of white on the 

 top of the head, and another on the hind neck ; tail of fourteen 

 feathers. Female with the bill greenish-black, its basal pro- 

 minences less elevated ; the feet yellowish-orange ; the plumage 

 brownish-black, darker on the top of the head and upper parts 

 of the body. Young like the female. 



Male in Winter, — This species, which in winter is 

 abundant on the eastern coasts of North America, and in 

 summer extaids from Labrador northward, having in a few 

 instances been met with on the coast of Scotland, claims our 

 regard as a British bird. My descriptions, however, are taken 

 from American specimens. The male, which is considerably 

 larger than the female, has the bill nearly as long as the 

 head, of about the same height and breadth at the base, 



VOL. V. K 



