ic^8 Trumbull, Our Scoters. fApril 



Another bit of Wilson's fallibility may be referred to in this 

 connection. In his article on our White-wing {deglandl) which 

 immediately follows his account of our Black Scoter {americana) 

 he says : "Tiiis and the preceding are frequently confounded to- 

 gether as one and the same by our gunners on the seacoast. The 

 former, however, difters in being of greater size; in having a 

 broad band of white across the wing," etc. A clerical error, to 

 be sure, but how indicative of the inexplicable tendency to mis- 

 repi-esent and confound our 'Coots.' I am wondering if in this 

 very article I have myself made some such clerical or more blam- 

 able blunder. If I have, I shall most certainly be in good com- 

 pany, and shall have added new interest to an already amusing 

 list. 



Audubon describes the eyes of our White-wing as follows : 

 male "bright yellow" (they are white) ; female "as in the male 

 but of duller tint" (they are deep brown) ; and of the eyes of 

 perspiclllata (which are as in deglandi) he says: male "bright 

 yellow-white"; female "as in the male." To be sure Audubon 

 also wrote before deglandi was pronounced diBerent ixoxn fiisca., 

 and he may have taken his colors from pictures or descriptions 

 of European birds. I will not attempt, however, to say whether 

 his colors are or are not like those oi fiisca. I have examined 

 no European White-wings (fresh specimens I mean) and dare 

 not trust the testimony of others concerning them ; too many 

 errors are being perpetuated by such copying. Scientists on the 

 other side of the water may have failed to note the colors of life, 

 and may have misrepresented their Scoters unwittingly, as we 

 have misrepi'esented ours. 



We all remember how Herbert (Frank Forester) mistook 

 deglandi for a nondescript, and that some of the scientists were 

 slow to recognize his mistake. I wonder if any one has ever ob- 

 served that he (Herbert) was also unfortunate in using in his 

 'Field Sports' the specific character of perspicillata for ameri- 

 cana. He quotes from Giraud's 'Birds of Long Island,' but un- 

 happily copied from the wrong side of the leaf, — page 329 

 instead of 330. 



While thus retrospective (and captiously inclined .'') I very nat- 

 urally recall that specimen of deglandi taken in Alaska, which 

 for a time was referred tofusca., and that other distinction with- 

 out a difference, the supposed variety of perspicillata ^'x.e.y 

 trowbridgii. 



