44 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



with a swollen knob near the base, the region round the nostrils 

 yellow; feet brownish-black, the webs darker; iris dark brown. 

 Total length, 20 inches; culmen, r8; wing, 9-0; tail, 3-5; tar- 

 sus, 1-6. 



Adult Female Duller in colour than the male, dark brown, 

 with light edges to the feathers of the under-parts, which are 

 paler ; bill dull black, with only a slight swelling near the base, 

 but no distinct bulb ; the sides of the face and throat paler, 

 dull white, with obscure tips of dull brown to the feathers. 

 Total length, 18 inches; culmen, 17; wing, 7-6; tail, 2-65; 

 tarsus, 1-65. 



Young Birds. Resemble the old female, but are more uniform 

 in colour above, and have the breast and abdomen white. 

 Young males are at first brown like the old female, and pass 

 their first winter in the brown plumage, moulting into a black 

 dress in the following spring. 



Nestling. Uniform dark brown above ; throat white ; breast 

 brown; abdomen greyish-brown; bill blackish lead-colour; feet 

 olivaceous. 



Characters. The male Common Scoter is distinguished by its 

 entirely black colour, by the yellow patch on its bill, and by 

 the swollen knob on the latter. The female has the chin and 

 throat whitish, but has no white on the wing-speculum or on 

 the nape. 



Range in Great Britain. A common winter visitor to our coasts 

 in autumn and winter, when it is found in thousands. A few 

 may be seen in summer, and the species is said to have bred in 

 Earnsley Marshes, near Chichester, of recent years. Mr. Chas. 

 Fowler shot a drake in August, 1891, which was accompanied 

 by seven nestlings just able to fly, and the specimen in ques- 

 tion was exhibited by Mr. Howard Saunders at a meeting of 

 the British Ornithologists' Club on the i8th of January, 1893. 

 This is the only probable instance of the breeding of the Scoter 

 in England, but it nests regularly in the north of Scotland, in 

 Caithness, Sutherland, and north-west Ross-shire. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Common Scoter nests in 

 the Northern Paliearctic Region from Iceland to Scandinavia, 

 Northern Russia and Siberia as far as the Taimyr Peninsula. 



