478 ANATID^. 



Scandinavia, north of lat. 60°. It frequents and breeds on 

 the large lakes in the mountainous districts, especially those 

 of whicli the shores are flat and boggy, and covered with 

 vegetation. In Lapland it is common everywhere ; also 

 appearing in the Dovre Fjeld, at the latter end of May ; and 

 frequenting the lakes as high as the birch grows." The 

 breeding-range of the Velvet Scoter extends across Finland 

 and Northern Russia ; and Naumann states that this species 

 occasionally nests in Mecklenburg. It visits the Baltic and 

 the coasts of northern and temperate Europe, in winter ; and 

 Lord Lilford observed a small flock at Santander, in the 

 north of Spain, throughout the month of May 1876 ; he also 

 saw a single bird there as late as the 21st of June, and a 

 large flock at the mouth of the Gironde on the 24th of that 

 month. In the western portion of the Mediterranean the 

 Velvet Scoter is as yet unrecorded ; but small numbers visit 

 the Adriatic every winter ; and further east, as well as in 

 the Black Sea, it occurs sparingly. Von Heuglin's statement 

 that it is a straggler to Lower Egypt is as yet unconfirmed. 



In Asia the Velvet Scoter is found in winter on the 

 Caspian and in Turkestan, but it has not yet been recorded 

 from India. Mr. Seebohm did not obtain it on the Yenesei ; 

 but it probably breeds in some parts of north-eastern 

 Siberia for it occurs in summer in Northern Mongolia, and 

 in the Bureja Mountains, visiting the Sea of Okhotsk, Mant- 

 churia, Japan, and China, down to the Yangtze, in winter. It 

 has recently been recorded by Prof. Ridgway as occurring in 

 Alaska, where, however, the predominant species is the North 

 American (Eclemia velvetina. The latter is slightly smaller ; 

 in the male the maxilla near the rictus is deeply sunken, 

 and not swollen as in our bird ; there is no black line across 

 the red portion of the mandible, and the base of the 

 culmen is elevated into a prominent knob. This American 

 form replaces ours throughout that continent, except in 

 Alaska, where the two meet. Audubon's account of the 

 nesting of the Velvet Scoter in Labrador — quoted in former 

 Editions — refers to the American species, but his descrip- 

 tions of the birds were taken from European examples. 



