THE, AMERICAN SCOTER. 811 
No. 327. 
AMERICAN SCOTER. 
A. O. U. No. 163. Oidemia americana Swains. 
Synonyms.—AMERICAN BLACK Scorer. SEA Coor. Brack Coor. 
Description.—Adult male: Entire plumage black, glossy and sooty; outline 
of feathers at base of bill not peculiar; base of culmen (especially during breeding 
season) swelled or knobbed,—the knob orange, the rest of the bill, including eyes, 
black. Adult female and young: Sooty gray or fuscous whitening on belly, also 
on throat, sides of head, and neck, where contrasting with dark fuscous of crown 
and nape; outline of feathers at base of bill substantially as in male, but culmen 
not gibbous. Length 18.00-22.00 (457.2-558.8); wing 9.00 (228.6); tail 3.00 
(76.2) ; bill (chord of culmen) 1.70 (43.2) ; tarsus 1.80 (45.7 
Recognition Marks.—Mallard size; plumage solid black; female fuscous, 
lightening below, and on sides of neck; loral feathering not peculiar. 
Nesting.—Does not nest in Washington. Nest: on the ground in marshes of 
the interior or along the sea coasts; of grasses, lined with feathers. Eggs: 6-10, 
pale buff or brownish buff. Av. size, 2.55 x 1.80 (64.8 x 45.7). 
General Range.—Coasts and larger inland waters of northern America; 
breeds in Labrador and the northern interior; south in winter to California, 
Colorado, the Great Lakes and New Jersey. 
Range in Washington.—Not common winter resident and migrant on Puget 
Sound and West Coast; non-breeding birds resident in summer. 
Authorities.—Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. TX. 1858, p. 808. C&S. L. Rh. 
13}, 1B, 
Specimens.— Prov. 
“SCAT!” says the housewife, when pussy starts to sharpen her claws on 
the oleander tree, “Sssscat!’ In some such way may have originated the 
commoner name of sea-coot—a hiss to start the uneasy fowl in motion—‘‘Ssss 
you coot. S’coot!” whence, of course, Scooter and Scoter, the bird that scoots. 
Whatever philologists may think of this derivation, it has at least the virtue of 
plausibility, and we shall remember that those ungainly black fowls which are 
forever getting in the way of steamboats, and shuffling off with wheezy com- 
plaint, are Scooters. Now and then, if we are watchful, we shall see a little 
company of Black Ducks which show no trace of white either on head or wing. 
And if the black is black enough to assure us that we are looking at male birds, 
and especially if we catch a glimpse of orange at the base of the upper mandi- 
ble, we may know that we are seeing the somewhat rare American Scoter. 
These birds are very abundant in Alaskan waters, but they do not venture 
south as often, nor in such numbers, as do the two succeeding species. They 
are somewhat smaller than the other birds, but there is nothing in habit or be- 
