46S VELVET-SCOTER. 



lands. At sea off the northern and eastern coasts of Ireland this 

 species is not uncommon, but on the west side it is almost unknown. 



To the Faeroes the Velvet-Scoter is a very rare wanderer, and 

 it has not yet been obtained in Iceland, and only once in Greenland. 

 In Scandinavia and Northern Russia it is common on the lakes of 

 the interior during the summer, and according to Taczanowski it 

 breeds as far south as Podolia, while Naumann states that it occa- 

 sionally nests in Mecklenburg. In winter it visits the Baltic, the 

 North Sea, and the waters of Western Europe ; and on migration it 

 crosses the Alps to the Adriatic, also reaching the Black Sea and the ■ 

 Caspian. In Siberia Mr. Popham found it as far east as the mouth ■ 

 of the Yenesei ; but the representative species in Eastern Siberia is 

 CE. carbo, which visits Japan and China in winter and may occur in 

 Alaska. Throughout North America the representative species is 

 (E. velvetina {(E. degiafidi) — a rather smaller bird, the male of 

 which presents some differences in the form of the bill. 



The nest, seldom made before the end of June, is placed in a 

 dry spot under some bush or tree, often at a considerable distance 

 from fresh water, and is lined with leaves and down. The eggs, 

 8-10 in number, are of a clear creamy-white and rather large for 

 the size of the bird: measurements 275 by i"9 in. As a rule 

 the Velvet-Scoter keeps further out at sea than the preceding species, 

 during the winter ; it dives deeper, and remains down longer. Its 

 food consists largely of molluscs, and its flesh is rank. 



The adult male has the plumage velvet-black, except a small 

 white patch behind each eye and a conspicuous white bar across 

 each wing (which gives the bird when flying the appearance of an 

 old Blackcock) ; bill apricot-yellow, with an elevated black basal 

 tubercle, from which a narrow dark line runs diagonally above each 

 nostril to the nail and is continued backwards to the gape ; irides 

 white; legs and toes orange-red, webs black. Length 22 in.; 

 wing 1075 in. In the female the upper plumage is sooty-brown, 

 and the under parts are lighter ; there is a large dull white patch 

 before — and a smaller one behind — each eye ; the white wing-bar is 

 less defined than in the male, and the bill is dark lead-colour with a 

 smaller basal tubercle : legs and toes dull red. The young are like 

 the female. 



