THE SCOTERS. 49 



Fulignla perspkillata^ Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 607 (1885). 



{Plate LXIIL) 



Adult Male. — Larger than (E.fusca or CE. nigra; velvety-black, 

 with a large, nearly quadrangular patch of white on the crown, 

 and another triangular white patch on the nape ; bill reddish 

 in life, the base swollen and marked on each side with a large 

 black spot ; feet crimson externally, the inner side of the tarsus 

 with both sides of the inner toe orange-chrome, deepening in 

 parts to orange- vermilion ; web black, the joints with blotches 

 of black; iris white. Total length, 21 inches; culmen, i'55; 

 wing, 9-3; tail, 3*1 ; tarsus, i-6. 



Count Salvadori states that in some birds, apparently quite 

 adult, the white patch on the crown is absent. A careful de- 

 scription of the colour of the bill and feet is given by Mr. 

 Trumbull in the "Auk," Vol. ix. pp. 153-160. 



Adult Female. — Brown above and below, whiter in the centre 

 of the breast and abdomen ; feathers of the back with indistinct 

 ashy-brown edges ; crown of head and nape blackish, as also 

 the lores and sides of face, with a slight indication of a whitish 

 patch below the eye, and another, more distinct, above the ear- 

 coverts. Total length, 18 inches ; wing, 8*4. 



Young Birds.— At first resemble the old female, but the head 

 has two distinct white patches, one near the lateral base of 

 the bill, and the other over the ear-coverts, behind and below 

 the eye ; the crown decidedly blackish ; the upper plumage 

 also, according to Count Salvadori, is more uniform than in the 

 adult female. Young males in their first full plumage are also 

 like the latter, but have traces of white on the nape. Young 

 females have the breast and abdomen white during the first 

 autumn. Young males in putting on their black plumage 

 soon develop the white nape-spot, but the white patch on 

 the crown comes later. 



Characters. — In the Surf Scoter there is no white speculum in 

 the wing, the feathers of the head advance much farther 

 on the forehead than they do on the lores, and the swollei: 

 portion on the sides of the bill at the base is entirely naked 

 (Salvadori). The Surf Scoter, on account of these characters, 

 is sometimes placed in a distinct genus, Pe/ioneffa. 



II E 



