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THE SCOTER. 521 
gunshot of them, and without their taking wing even at that. 
As soon as I arrived within two or three gunshots’ distance, 
the whole flock sank, beneath the surface like so many 
stones; and, swimming under water for almost a quarter 
of a mile, appeared at the surface in a locality where I least 
expected to see them: sometimes immediately astern of my 
boat; at others, in a direction at right angles to the course 
which I supposed they had taken. 
Audubon, in describing a nest that he found in a boggy 
marsh near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, says, — 
“The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch 
of grass, and raised fully four inches above its roots. It was 
entirely composed of withered and rotten weeds, the former being 
circularly arranged over the latter; producing a well-rounded 
cavity, the borders of which were lined with the down of the bird, 
in the same manner as the Eider Duck’s nest; and in it lay five 
eggs, which were two inches and two and a half eighths in length, 
by one inch and five-eighths in their greatest breadth. They were 
more equally rounded at both ends than usual, the shell perfectly 
smooth, and of a uniform pale-yellowish or cream color.” 
OIDEMIA, FLEemrIne. 
Oidemia, FLEmine, “ Philos. Zool. (1822).”” (Type Anas nigra, L.) 
Bill much swollen at base, the terminal portion much depressed and very broad; 
nail broad, occupying the terminal portion of the bill; nostrils situated anterior to 
the middle of the commissure; feathers of the chin running forwards as far as the 
nostrils; color black with or without small patches of white. 
OIDEMIA AMERICANA. — Swainson. 
The Scoter, 
Anas nigra, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 185. 
Fuligula Americana, Audubon. Orn. Biog., V. (1889) 117. Jb., Birds Am., V1. 
1843) 343. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Male. — Tail of sixteen feathers; bill much gwollen on the basal third; the basal 
portion of culmen convex, and rapidly descending; the terminal portion of bill 
much depressed ; the anterior extremity of nostrils half-way from the lateral or upper 
feathers at the base of bill to the tip; the swelling at base of bill divided by a fur- 
row along the median line; the frontal feathers extend slightly forward in an obtuse 
