VELVET SCOTER. 165 



Out of Britain, the continental ornithologists inform 

 us that it is found as far south as Italy. Its places 

 of nidification are however not narrated, but it was 

 observed by Mr. Hewitson, and some other northern 

 travellers, in Norway, Sweden, and Scandinavia. In 

 Lapland, writes Mr. Dann, in his notes to Mr. 

 Yarrell, it is common everywhere, breeding on 

 hummocks, among the willow swamps, or long grass 

 near the water, by the edges of large lakes in moun- 

 tainous districts. In North America the Velvet 

 Scoter is also migratory, arriving on the shores of 

 the middle states about the beginning of September, 

 and stretching sometimes as far south as Georgia, 

 while in April it commences again to retire north- 

 ward to breed. The extreme limits in this direction 

 have not been ascertained, but it was met with 

 abundantly on the coasts of Labrador by Mr. Audubon, 

 many at the same time continuing their course 

 northward. It is described by him as breeding by the 

 sides of small lakes, two or three miles distant from 

 the sea ; the nests being usually placed under the 

 low boughs of the bushes, of the twigs of which, 

 with mosses and various plants matted together, 

 they are formed.* 



Plumage entirely of a deep velvet-black, except 

 a pure white spot on the lower eyelid which passes 

 behind the eye in the form of an acute angle, and 

 the tips of the greater covers, which are of the same 

 colour, and show a bright and strongly contrasting 

 bar across each wing; on the head and neck the 

 * Audubon, iii. p. 357. 



