VELVET SCOTER. 135 



the nostrils, then slightly concave, and at the end decurved, 

 the ridge on the prominence very broad and flattened, towards 

 the end broadly convex, the sides convex, the edges thin and 

 obtuse, with about thirty lamellae, the unguis very large and 

 broadly elliptical ; the lower mandible flattened, with the 

 intercrural space very long, rather narrow, rounded anteriorly, 

 bare for more than half its length, the crura slender, rearcuate, 

 the dorsal line slightly convex, the edges wdth about tw^enty- 

 five lamella), the unguis very large and broadly elliptical ; 

 the gape-line gently rearcuate. 



Nostrils elliptical, very large, sub-basal, sub-vertical, 

 pervious, their upper margin membranous, their length four- 

 twelfths-and-a-quarter. The eyes are rather small. The 

 legs are very short, and placed rather far behind ; the tarsus 

 very short, compressed, with small scutella in front, a partial 

 series above the outer toe, the rest reticulated with small 

 angular scales. The hind toe is small, slender, with a pretty 

 large membrane, connected at the base with the marginal 

 membrane of the inner toe, which is also pretty large, and 

 formed into two lobes. The anterior toes are nearly double 

 the length of the tarsus, the inner much shorter than the 

 third and fourth, which are nearly equal ; the outer with a 

 thick margin ; the interdigital membranes with their free 

 margin concave ; the first toe with about ten, the second 

 with about forty, the other two about fifty scutella. The 

 claws are small ; that of the hind toe very small, arcuate, 

 and compressed ; of the second and fourth slender, slightly 

 arcuate, compressed, obtuse, of the middle toe with the inner 

 edge dilated. 



The plumage is full, dense, and soft ; on the head and 

 neck blended and velvety ; those on the fore part of the head 

 extremely small ; on the neck oblong ; on the other parts 

 ovato-oblong, rounded, dense, and glossy. The wings, which 

 reach to two inches from the tip of the tail, are rather short, 

 narrow, and pointed. The primaries of moderate breadth, 

 acuminate, the first longest, the second scarcely two-twelfths 

 of an inch shorter, the rest more rapidly decreasing; the 

 secondaries broadly rounded, the inner oblong. The tail is 

 very short, narrow, much rounded, or wedge-shaped, of four- 



