WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 325 



White-Winged Scoter 



Melanitta deglandi 

 (Melanitta fusca deglandi, of Peters) 



(mel-a-nit-a, de-gland-i; fiis-ka) 

 Colour Plate No. 26. Juvenile No. 27. Downy Young No. 35. 



Melanitta, from Greek, melas, melanos, meaning black, and netta, meaning 

 a duck; deglandi, in honour of Dr. Come Damieu Degland (1787-1856), a French 

 naturalist and director of Museum d'Histoire Naturelle of Lille; author of a 

 work on European birds published in 1849; fusca, Latin, meaning dusky. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



I\ GENERAL USE: Coot; whitewing; whitewinger; whitewinged coot. IN LOCAL 

 USE: Bay coot (female and immature); bay muscovie; beach comber; bell-tongue 



coot; black duck; black whitewing; booby; 

 brant coot; brass-wing diver; brown coot 

 (female and immature); bull-coot (the male); 

 bull whitewing (the male); channel duck; 

 deaf duck; eastern whitewing; gibier noir 

 (black fowl); gray coot (female and im- 

 mature); gray whitewing (female and im- 

 mature); half moon-eye; ice duck; Indian 

 duck; iron pot; Klondike mallard; macreuse 

 (the specific French name for scoter, trace- 

 able to an old word meaning spotted); May whitewing; muscova; nigger duck; 

 niggerhead; old grey coot; old iron put; petit noir (little black); pied-winged 

 coot; rock coot; scooter; scutter duck; sea brant; sea coot; sea horse; semblymen 

 (contraction of assemblymen); siwash duck; squaw duck; tar bucket; tar pot; 

 Uncle Sam coot; velvet duck; white-eyed coot; white-eye; whitewing diver. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and neck, black, with small crescent- 

 shaped white spot behind and below eye; bill, edges of both mandibles, black; 

 sides of upper mandible, red or purplish, shading to orange near base, ridge, white; 

 prominent black knob at base above; lower mandible, reddish orange at tip, white 

 in centre, base black; nail, large, fused, reddish orange, often with narrow black 

 line on each side, running back to knob; nostril, round and large, feathering on 

 ridge extends nearly as far as nostril, and feathering on sides nearly as far as on 

 ridge; eye, white or pale blue grey; eyelid, dusky. Body and Tail. Entire plumage 

 black, with brownish tinge on sides and breast. Feet, orange vermilion, on inner 

 sides, outer sides, purplish pink; luebs dusky to black; toes, irregularly marked with 

 black. Wings, black, with tips of greater coverts and speculum, white; lining, dusky 

 brown and silvery brown; axillars, dusky brown. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: There is no eclipse plumage. Instead there is a partial 

 prenuptial moult in March and April, involving the b^dy-feathers and tail, and 



