SCOTERS— GREY PLOVER— BAR-TAILED GOD WIT 9 



bluish grey with a black nail, the feet blue with black claws, and the eyes yellow. 



The female, which, like the young males, has a white band round the base of the 



beak, in colour is brown with whitish wavy linos; the wings being much the same 



as in the male. 



Among other northern ducks, six species of scoter are common 

 Scoters. ° . x 



to both hemispheres, all of which are black in colour, and dis- 

 tinguished by a large knob near the base of the broad and flat beak. The common 

 scoter {(Edemia nigra) swarms in the North Sea every winter, and appears in 

 thousands on the shores of the British Isles, Holland, and France. It nests, 

 however, in the polar regions, where it is especially numerous on the Siberian 

 coasts, also appearing, although rarely, on the Caspian and the Baltic. Returning 

 to its breeding-area in March and April, this scoter nests mostly in barren 

 localities near fresh water ; but it is quite marine in its habits, and seldom seen 

 far away from the sea. Except during pairing-time, it seldom comes on shore, 

 and even then prefers deep open waters. Being a very shy bird, and alwa} r s out 

 in the open, it is difficult of approach. In length it is about 20 inches from beak 

 to tail, and may be recognised by the reddish yellow mark round the nostrils. 

 The female is brown with whitish tips to the feathers of the under-parts, and a 

 very small knob on the beak. 



The velvet scoter {(E.fasca), which is unknown in Arctic Iceland and Greenland, 

 and represented in America by (E. deglandi, much resembles in habits the common 

 species, with which it associates in large flocks. The feathers are as valuable as 

 those of the eider-duck ; and the species is much hunted in Kamchatka, where the 

 natives drive it into the bays with boats, where it is killed with sticks. They 

 also take scoters in nooses, using a stuffed female bird as a decoy ; few are, 

 however, shot, as these birds sink the body deep into the water while swimming, 

 only showing the head and neck above the surface. The velvet scoter is rather 

 larger than the common species, from which it may be distinguished by the white 

 speculum on the wing, the white spot below the eye, the red feet, and the reddish 

 yellow beak, of which the base and edges are black. 



The plovers of the far north are represented by a species easily 

 Grey Plover. ... 



mistaken for the golden plover, but recognisable by its superior 



size, stronger beak, and the presence of a small hind-toe. This bird, the grey 



plover (Squatarola helvetica), during migration is often seen on the North Sea, 



more seldom on the Baltic, and very rarely inland, though now and then visiting 



peat-moors. Inhabiting the north-east of Europe and the north of Asia and 



America, the grey plover migrates in August and September, and returns in 



March, April, or May. Migration takes it as far south as Cape Colony, the 



Malay Archipelago, and Australia, and in America it is met with in Brazil 



and Peru. The grey plover is mostly mottled white above and black below, 



except the abdomen and tail-coverts, which are white. The wing has a white bar 



when open, and the tail is white with six or seven black bars. 



Bar-Tailed The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), which breeds on the 



Goiwit. large swamps and inland waters of northern Sweden, Finland, and 



Lapland, on the Peninsula of Kola in northern Russia, and the tundras of 



northern Siberia, migrates to central and southern Europe, and appears in 



