224 DIVING DUCKS. 



a marine species, keeping well off-shore in fair 

 weather, and diving for its food in deep water. It 

 is the only Duck with plumage entirely black. 



VELVET SCOTER.— Plate 97. 22 inches. En- 

 tirel}^ black, except large white patch on wing, and 

 small white spot beneath the eye ; bill pale orange ; 

 legs and toes orange-red. Female : blackish-brown, 

 but lighter underneath, and with whitish patch on 

 face ; white patch on wing less conspicuous than in 

 the male. Winter migrant. 



Velvet Scoters come in with Common Scoters as 

 winter visitors, chiefly to the eastern coasts of the 

 British Islands, but they are less numerous than the 

 Common Scoter. The}^ too, are deep-water divers, 

 feeding chiefly on molluscs. Although resembling the 

 commoner bird in colour, size, and, to a large extent, 

 in habits (Velvet Scoters are not so exclusively 

 marine), they are at once distinguishable from the 

 Common Scoter by the presence of the white wing- 

 patch and eye-spot. 



