SEA DUCKS 117 



I do not think I saw one thousand of these Ducks during the 

 fall and I had letters from friends as far east as Mt. Desert 

 complaining of the same thing. My brother, who worked at 

 the Delaware breakwater, at Cape Henlopen, the past summer, 

 says the Scoter Ducks there are just as tame as they used to be 

 here and fed all around the vicinity where they were at work 

 and did not mind the boats only to get out of the way. They 

 do not gun them south and the same birds which are so shy 

 on the New England coast evidently feel a security in that 

 locality which they do not enjoy on our coast. I will mention 

 another point in their migration. About the sixth of April 

 the first flight of American Scoters comes and ten days later 

 the Surf Ducks. About the first of May the White-winged 

 Scoter appears, and although there may be scattering birds of 

 each kind during all the time, you will not see any flocks only 

 as the flights come, and in the flight proper I have never seen 

 the species together unless the immature birds, and even then 

 I do not remember of ever seeing all three species at once." 

 (Herbert L. Spinney.) 



Subgenus PELIONETTA Kaup. 



166. Oidemia perspicillata (Linn.). Surf Scoter; Bald- 

 headed Scoter; Sea Coot; Butter-billed Coot. 



Plumage of adult male : a pure white patch on the forehead and another 

 on hind neck; bill orange yellow with swollen portion bare of feathers; 

 a circular black spot on side near base of bill; plumage otherwise black. 

 Plumage of adult female and immature : whitish at base of bill and on the 

 ears ; upper parts dusky ; throat, breast and sides grayish brown ; belly white ; 

 the feathers of the breast and sides are often tipped with lighter. Wing 

 9.20 to 9.80 ; culmen 1.45 ; tarsus 1.70. 



Geog. Dist. — Coast and larger inland waters of northern North America ; 

 breeds from Gulf of St. Lawrence northward ; in winter south to Florida and 

 Lower California. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; (Pike). Cumberland; common, (Brock). 

 Northern Cumberland; somewhat rare visitor, (Mead). Franklin; rare 

 migrant, (Richards). Hancock; common in fall and spring and occasional 

 in winter, a few also in summer, (Knight). Knox; resident, (Rackliff). 



