ic6 Trumbull, O/^r Sroiers [April 



or oranc^e," but yellow and orange. It may be added that the 

 reddish color becomes more orangey (and^the light yellow above 

 somewhat less pure) within a little time after the bird has been 

 killed. I have myself used the term 'orange' for the red of this 

 bill in a description which was written when none but stale spec- 

 imens, or those which had been killed two or three days, were at 

 hand. 



One author describes "the swollen basal portion" as "red to 

 beyond the nostrils," but as he makes no mention of the yellow, 

 and as the red never does extend beyond the nostrils, his descrip- 

 tion cannot be regarded as happy. 



Another says : ''The male is noted for the gibbosity of pinkish- 

 white near base of bill ; the lower edge of the swelling is deep 

 red, gradually blending with the black of the bill." There is no 

 pinkish white on the bill, nor any "■blending" — gradual or 

 otherwise — of the red and black. 



Another describes the feet as "greenish" simply, but there is 

 not the least greenish or olive cast about the feet of the adult drake, 

 and the feet of the female and yoimg male are as brownish and 

 blackish as they are greenish. 



Audubon's account of the drake's beak, though better than 

 others, is nevertheless unsatisfactory, for it gives the color of the 

 "bulging part" as "bright orange, paler above," leaving the 

 reader to suppose that the upper part though "paler" is also of an 

 orange tint ; and though in his original folio edition there is a 

 show of pure yellow, the orange color is carried too far forward, 

 appearing in front of the nostrils, where the bill is always black, 

 and between the nostrils, where it is always pure yellow. In 

 some of the octavo issues of Audubon (those of 1840-44 and 187 1 

 at least) the plumage is much too highly glossed with blue or 

 blue and purple. The upper parts of the adult drake are, to be 

 sure, somewhat glossy, and the head, with a little of the neck, 

 shows in certain lights a plum-cohjred iridescence, but in no 

 case is this iridescence very noticeable. 



Among the colored illustrations of two of our later ornitholog- 

 ical works, the eye of the drake in one case is yellow, instead of 

 deep brown as nature paints it, and in the other white, as in the 

 adult drakes of deglandi and pei-spicillata. 



Wilson's picture and description published in 1S14 (before our 

 American Scoter was separated from the Evu-opean) were the 



