SURF SCOTER 333 



Surf Scoter 



Melanitta perspicillata 

 (mel-a-nit-a, per-spik-il-a-ta) 



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



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



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

 duck; perspicillata, Latin, meaning conspicuous, spectacular (referring to the peculiar 

 and striking bill). 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Coot. IN LOCAL USE: Bald-headed coot; baldplate; bay coot; bay 

 muscovie; beach comber; black coot; blackduck; black sea-duck; blossom bill; 

 blossom head; booby; bottlenosed diver; brown coot (female and immature); 

 butterboat-bill; butterboat-billed coot; deaf duck; gibier noir (black fowl); gog 



glenose; gray coot (female and immature); horse- 

 head; horsehead coot; Indian duck; iron pot; Jew 

 duck; king coot; macreuse (the specific French 

 vernacular for Scoter, traced to and old word mean- 

 ing spotted); morrocojaw; mussel bill; nigger duck; 

 niggerhead; old iron pot; patch bill; patch-head; 

 patch-head coot; patch-polled coot; petit noir (little 

 black); pishang (female and immature); plaster bill; 

 river coot; rock coot; scooter; 'scovy (contraction 

 of muscovy); scutter duck; sea coot; siwash duck; skunkbill; skunkbill coot; skunk- 

 head; skunkhead coot; skunktop; sleepy diver; snuff-taker; speckle-billed coot; 

 spectacle coot; spectacle duck; squaw duck; surf coot; surf duck; surf scooter; 

 surfer; tar-bucket; tarpot; whitebill coot; whitehead; whitehead coot; whitescop. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and neck, black, except for white 

 patch on forehead (lacking in yearlings), and a long, triangular patch of white 

 on nape, pointing backwards; white feathers on nape intermixed with shorter, 

 completely concealed, black ones; bill, a round or squarish black patch on side 

 near base, margined behind by red, above by orange, and in front and below by 

 a patch of white; ridge and region around nostril, red; tip and nail, pale yellow; 

 lower mandible, yellow towards base and flesh coloured elsewhere; frontal feath- 

 ers extending along ridge nearly to nostril, but no feathers on side of bill; 

 feathers on chin extend about half-way to tip of lower mandible; bill swollen 

 near base, nail large and fused; nostril about middle of bill; eye, white to pale 

 bluish white. Body, Tail and Wings. Entire back, chest, tail and wings, black; 

 breast and sides, brownish black; belly, brownish black, mottled with lighter 

 brown; wing-lining, brownish black and silvery grey; axillars, dusky brown; feet, 

 bright red on outer side, orange red on inner side, tarsus and toes marked with 

 dusky; webs, black. 



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

 prenuptial moult in March and April, involving the body-feathers and tail, and 

 the white feathers on nape. During a complete postnuptial moult in August and 

 September, the flight-feathers are shed and the birds are incapable of flight until 

 these are renewed. 



