x 
b 
t 
¥ 
~ 
; 
f 
\ 
ing angularly out of line /) 
and fore parts of the body, 
ANATIDH, DUCKS.—GEN. 269. 293 
European under name of S. dresser?, by Mr. Sharpe, but I doubt the 
. 
exclusive pertinence of the assigned characters. . . MOLLISSIMA (var?). 
. Pacific Hider. Precisely like the last, excepting a V-shaped black: mark 
on the chin; :may require to be treated as merely a variety. Arctic and 
North Pacific coast, com 
mon. Bop., 810; Exuior 
mpl48....0 3. . “V-NIGRA 
. King Hider.. Bill with | 
broad squarish nearly ver- | 
tical frontal processes bulg- | 
with culmen. ¢ in breed- 
ing attire black, including 
a forked chin-patch, a} 
frontal band, and small 
space round eye; the neck 
part of interscapulars, of 
wing coverts and of lining 
of wings, and a flank patch, 
white, creamy on the jug- 
ulum, greenish on sides of 
head ; crown and nape fine = 
bluish-ash. 92 resenblijag SS —* 
that of the common eider, Fig. 192. Eider Ducks. Upper fig., #; lower fig., 2. 
but bill different. Size of the last, or rather less. Both coasts, arctic 
and northerly; S. in winter sometimes to New York. Nurv., ii, 414; 
MUD, Visa.) pl. 4045)Bp., 810. . 1. » .» » + + «+ “SPECTABILIS. 
269. Genus G2DEMIA Fleming. 
*,.* Embracing the black sea-ducks, surf-ducks, scoters or ‘‘coots” as they are 
variously called: maritime mollusk-eating species, scarcely fit for food; ¢ black, 
relieved or not by definite white patches on head or wings, or both, with brightly 
_parti-colored bill, very broad at the end, singularly gibbous at base, but of different 
form in each of the following species, unnecessarily causing their separation into 
the three genera, mentioned below; @ sooty-brown, etc., bill simply turgid at base, 
much widened at end; but may be known by having the nostrils at the middle of 
the bill or beyond it, the nail broad, fused, occupying all the tip, the frontal feathers 
reaching further on culmen than on sides of upper mandible, and forming no 
reéntrance at its back upper corner; young g resembling the @. Our three 
species inhabit both coasts, and sometimes the larger inland waters, breeding 
northward; they occur abundantly in winter along the whole length of the U-S. 
American Black Scoter. Bill scarcely encroached upon by the frontal 
feathers, shorter than the head, black, the gibbosity superior, circumscribed, 
orange ( g); nostrils at its middle ; tail normally 16-feathered. ( Hdemia.) 
Plumage of ¢ entirely black. 9 sooty-brown, paler below, becoming 
