AMERICAN SCOTER. 333 



AMERICAN SCOTER. 



BLACK SCOTER. BUTTER-BILLED COOT. BLACK COOT. 

 SEA COOT. 



OlDEMIA AMERICANA. 



Char. Male: general plumage black, the under parts somewhat 

 brownish ; bill black, with large patch of orange or yellow on upper 

 mandible ; legs and feet black. Length about 20 inches. Female : 

 smaller than the male ; plumage dusky brown, more or less mixed with 

 white on under parts. 



Nest. On a sea-side cliff or moorland bluff near a lake, — made of 

 coarse herbage and lined with down. 



Eggs, 6-10; buff of various shades ; 2.55 X i.8o. 



This species, probably confounded with the Common Scoter, 

 is said to inhabit the shores of Hudson Bay, breeding between 

 the 50th and 60th parallels, but does not appear to frequent 

 the interior. It lives and feeds principally at sea, and its flesh 

 is rank and oily. The American Scoters visit the coasts and 

 bays of Massachusetts and New York in considerable numbers, 

 associating with the Surf, Velvet, Eider, and other Sea Ducks, 

 and are brought occasionally to Boston market about the first 

 week in November. While here they appear to feed princi- 

 pally on shell-fish, particularly mussels, and the flesh of the 

 young is tolerably palatable. 



The American Scoter is not so strictly a sea-bird as Nuttall sup- 

 posed, for though common on the coast it is found also on all the 

 larger inland waters. In the A. O. U. "Check List" this bird's 

 distribution is given as follows : " Coasts and larger inland waters 

 of northern North America ; breeds in Labrador and the northern 

 interior ; south in winter to New Jersey, the Great Lakes, Colorado, 

 and California." 



In October, 1878, I shot a male near the head waters of the 

 Restigouche river, in the center of New Brunswick. 



In habits this species does not differ materially from its allies. 



