340 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



SCOTER, BLACK. See SCOTER, COMMON. 



SCOTER, COMMON. Also BLACK SCOTER. 



(CEdemia m'gra.) 

 Order ANSERES ; Family ANATID^: (DUCKS). 



Description of Parent Birds. Length about 

 twenty-one inches. Bill of medium length, swollen 

 into a knob at the base, and flattened at the tip. 

 It is black, with the exception of a ridge of yellow, 

 which commences half an inch from the tip and 

 extends to the base. Irides dusky-brown. The 

 plumage is deep black all over, somewhat glossy 

 about the head and neck. Legs, toes, and webs 

 dusky, darkest on the last. 



The female lacks the knob on the bill, and her 

 plumage is not nearly so deep a black in colour. 



Situation and Locality. A hollow scraped in the 

 ground or some natural declivity, hidden by low, 

 growing shrubs, sheltering heather, or rushes on 

 small islands, near lochs and rivers, not far from 

 the sea, in the most northern counties of Scotland. 



Materials. -Bits of dead heather, rushes, and 

 dry grass, with an inner lining of down. The 

 tufts are brownish-grey with pale centres, are large, 

 a little darker than those of the Mallard, and much 

 more so than those of the Goosander. 



Eggs. Six to nine, although I have known a 

 case of a bird with thirteen young ones, pale greyish- 

 buff or yellowish-white, sometimes slightly tinged 

 with green, smooth surfaced. Size about 2.5 by 

 1.78 in. 



Time. May and June. I should say from my 



