VELVET SCOTER. 49 
Its note is a short squeak, by no means, says Audubon, 
unpleasant to the ear. | 
They hatch, it is said, very late—seldom before the middle 
of July. 
Audubon writes of this species, that they ‘begin to form 
their nests from the Ist. to the 10th. of June. The nests 
are placed within a few feet of the borders of small Jakes, a 
mile or two distant from the sea, and usually under the 
low boughs of the bushes, of the twigs of which, with 
mosses and various plants matted together, they are formed. 
They are large and almost flat, several inches thick, with 
some feathers of the female, but no down.’ They are also 
found on hummocks, or in long grass among willow swamps. 
The eggs are usually six, but sometimes eight or ten in 
number, of a uniform pale cream-colour, tinged with green. 
The males leave the females after incubation has commenced. 
A pair had bred on the same water for six or seven years 
in succession. The young did not quit the pond until they 
were able to fly; as soon as that is the case the mother 
bird escorts them to the sea. 
Male; weight, about three pounds two ounces; length, one 
foot ten or eleven inches. ‘The bill, which is broad, is yellowish 
orange margined with black, the base of the upper mandible 
raised into a knob, also black on the upper part; the tip of 
the nail darker orange than the remainder. Iris, pale yel- 
lowish white; behind, and rather lower than the eye, is an 
angular space of pure white; the eyelids are also white, the 
eye small. ‘The head, which is large, on the crown, and the 
neck, nape, chin, and throat, dull black; breast, black; back, 
intense velvet black. 
The wings, which have the first quill the longest, are crossed 
by a white bar; with this exception, the whole of the re- 
mainder of the plumage the same, namely, the greater wing 
eoverts, which are tipped with white, are otherwise, as the 
lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, with the exception 
of the white tips, tertiaries, greater and lesser under wing 
coverts, tail, of fourteen feathers and short, and the tail 
coverts—also intense velvet black. Legs, scarlet red on the 
inner part, and red with a tinge of o1ange or the outer: the 
joints are stained with black; toes, orange red, claws, black. 
webs, dark brownish black. 
The female is not so large as the mai. Kili, dusky, the 
knob at its base is much less than in the maie; between it 
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