VELVET SCOTER. 217 



ears, is a white spot : the beak is blackish-ash : the 

 irides are brown : the tarsi and toes are dull red. 

 The young males during the first year resemble the 

 old females, but are distinguished by the brighter red 

 of the tarsi and toes, and by the white spots before 

 and behind the eyes, which are much smaller. 



The trachea of the male of this bird has a singular 

 bony swelling, flat on one side, the size of a small 

 walnut, situated about two-thirds of the length from 

 the larynx : immediately under the larynx is another 

 oblong bony cavity of nearly an inch in length ; 

 at the divarication the parts become bony, but not 

 greatly enlarged. 



Inhabit the arctic seas, where they rear their young, 

 and continue during the summer months, but retire 

 southward in winter, at which season they occur in 

 greater or less profusion, according to the severity of 

 the weather, on the more temperate coasts and seas 

 of England, France, Holland, and America. They 

 are also found at Kamtschatka, where they are said 

 to breed, going far inland to lay : the eggs are eight 

 or ten, and white : the males are said to depart and 

 leave the females to remain with the young until they 

 are able to fly. In the river Ochotska they are so 

 numerous that a party of natives, consisting of fifty 

 or more, go off in boats and drive the birds up the 

 river before them ; and when the tide ebbs, fall on 

 them at once, and knock them on the head with clubs, 

 killing such numbers, that each man has twenty or 

 thirty for his share. These birds feed almost exclu- 

 sively upon bivalve mollusca, in search of which they 

 are perpetually diving. 



