1S92,] Trumbull, Our Scoters. ^59 



I have already referred to a work in which americana is rep- 

 resented with white eyes. The same work contains other evi- 

 dence of carelessness. The writer informs us that deglandi is 

 sometimes "found in company with the Velvet Scoter," a foc- 

 hardly worth publishing, as the Velvet Scoter (he is describing 

 our own avifauna) and deglandi are one. He also tells us in his 

 account of persplclllata that "it was common in summer to see 

 males in the bhnaculata plumage," but as this term blmaciilata 

 (the specific name given by Herbert to his supposed nondescript) 

 can only be applied with any technical significance to the 

 plumage of deglandi^ we are left somewhat in doubt as to his 

 meaning. 



In another volume of late date we find the colors of the per- 

 splclllata male described as follows: "Bill mostly orange red, 

 with a patch of black near the base of the upper mandible, bor- 

 dered by orange and pale blue ; lower mandible pinkish ; legs and 

 toes orange, webs dull green."* Perhaps I had better leave the 

 reader to make his comparisons with my foot-note uninterruptedly, 

 but I will add this much : I have examined most carefully numer- 

 ous specimens in spring, autumn, and winter. I have never seen 

 the least touch of blue on an}' of the bills (the nearest approach 

 to it being the inconspicuous lavender tint at the root of the nail), 

 neither have I found the least greenish cast on the webs, but the 



*The colors referred to (of adult male perspiciltata) are as follows : 



Upper mandible: above at base, including nostrils, dull crimson (or pinkish-pur- 

 plish crimson), this changed to flame-scarlet over the front of the mandible; nail 

 cadmium-yellow, narrowly edged anteriorly with lighter yellow, and sometimes pos- 

 teriorly with light lavender; side of mandible with large squarish patch of black at 

 base, this separated from the black feathering above it by orange and from the feath- 

 ering behind by a narrower edging of crimson; beneath this black patch, and in 

 front of it as far as anterior edge of nostril, or thereabouts, continuously white, the 

 remainder of the side (anterior to white portion), pure orange. 



Lower mandible : nail like its fellow above ; back of this for a short distance reddish 

 flesh-color terminating irregularly in white, the white continued to the base, with 

 more or less black on the naked skin between the rami. 



Feet: outer side of tarsus and toes, excepting inner toe, crimson ; the inner side 

 (or side next the other foot) with both sides of the inner toe, orange-chrome deepened 

 in part to orange-vermilion — a little of this color sometimes showing on the outer side 

 of the middle toe; joints and other portions blotchily marked with black; webs solidly 

 black. 



Decidedly the most truthfully colored representation of this drake's bill which I 

 have seen is that of Nelson in his 'Report upon Natural History Collections made in 

 Alaska,' plate V. Whatever the faults in the picture, we can readily believe that it 

 was colored, as he says, "from nature." 



