THE SCOTER. 521 



gunshot of them, and without their taking wing even at that. 

 As soon as I arrived within two or three gunshots' distance, 

 the whole flock sank beneath the surface like so many 

 stones ; and, swimming under water for almost a quarter 

 of a mile, appeared at the surface in a locality where I least 

 expected to see them : sometimes immediately astern of my 

 boat ; at others, in a direction at right angles to the course 

 which I supposed they had taken. 



Audubon, in describing a nest that he found in a boggy 

 marsh near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, says, 



" The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch 

 of grass, and raised fully four inches above its roots. It was 

 entirely composed of withered and rotten weeds, the former being 

 circularly arranged over the latter ; producing a well-rounded 

 cavity, the borders of which were lined with the down of the bird, 

 in the same manner as the Eider Duck's nest ; and in it lay five 

 eggs, which were two inches and two and a half eighths in length, 

 by one inch and five-eighths in their greatest breadth. They were 

 more equally rounded at both ends than usual, the shell perfectly 

 smooth, and of a uniform pale-yellowish or cream color." 



OIDEMIA, FLEMING. 



Oidemia, FLEMING, " Philos. Zool. (1822)." (Type Anas nigra, L.) 

 Bill much swollen at base, the terminal portion much depressed and very broad; 

 nail broad, occupying the terminal portion of the bill; nostrils situated anterior to 

 the middle of the commissure ; feathers of the chin running forwards as far as the 

 nostrils; color black with or without small patches of white. 



OIDEMIA AMERICANA. Swainson. 

 The Scoter. 



Anas nigra, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 135. 



Fuligula Americana, Audubon. Orn. Biog., V. (1839) 117. Ib., Birds Am., VI. 

 (1843) 343. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Male. Tail of sixteen feathers ; bill much swollen on the basal third ; the basal 

 portion of culmen convex, and rapidly descending; the terminal portion of bill 

 much depressed ; the anterior extremity of nostrils half-way from the lateral or upper 

 feathers at the base of bill to the tip ; the swelling at base of bill divided by a fur- 

 row along the median line; the frontal feathers extend slightly forward in an obtuse 



