VELVET SCOTER. 317 



young ones out of a brood of six, among which, although to 

 appearance scarcely a week old, I could readily distinguish 

 the males from the females as they swam on the little pond 

 around their mother ; the former having already a white 

 spot under the eye. A pair had bred on the same water 

 for six or seven years in succession, and the young did not 

 leave the pond until they were able to fly." 



The adult male has the beak orange, based and edged 

 with black ; the irides pale yellowish- white ; the eye- 

 lid and a small patch behind each eye white ; the ends of 

 the secondary quill-feathers white, forming a conspicuous 

 bar across the wing ; all the rest of the plumage uniform 

 velvet black ; the legs and toes reddish-orange, the inter- 

 vening membranes dark brown. 



The whole length is twenty -two inches. From the point 

 of the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather ten 

 inches and three-quarters. 



In the female, Mr. Audubon says, the basal prominence 

 of the bill is much less elevated, and the colour of the 

 whole bill is dusky. The irides and feet are as in the male, 

 but of duller tints ; the general colour of the plumage is a 

 sooty brown ; the breast and abdomen lighter ; there are 

 two whitish spots on each side of the head, one near the 

 base of the upper mandible, the other behind the eye ; the 

 secondary quills are white, as in the male. 



The trachea of the male Velvet Duck is remarkable for 

 a hollow bony enlargement situated about two-thirds down 

 the tube, made up of expanded tracheal rings, which in 

 the adult bird are firmly ossified together. Upon each 

 side of this enlargement a small muscle passing downwards 

 is inserted upon the inner side of the shaft of the bone, 

 called the merrythought ; and the voice is probably in- 

 fluenced by the action of these muscles altering the relative 

 position of this hollow bulb upon the tube. There is also 



