VELVET DUCK. 213 



fishy flavour, having been exempted from the interdict, 

 on the supposition of their being cold blooded, and 

 partaking of the nature of fish. * 



The scoter abounds in Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Russia, and Siberia. It was also found by Osbeck, 

 between the islands of Java and St Paul, lat. 30 and 

 34, in the month of June, -f* 



This species is twenty-one inches in length, and 

 thirty-four in extent, and is easily distinguished from 

 all other ducks by the peculiar form of its bill, which 

 has at the base a large elevated knob, of a red colour, 

 divided by a narrow line of yellow, which spreads over 

 the middle of the upper mandible, reaching nearly to 

 its extremity, the edges and lower mandible are black ; 

 the eyelid is yellow ; irides, dark hazel ; the whole 

 plumage is black, inclining to purple on the head and 

 neck ; legs and feet, reddish. 



The female has little or nothing of the knob on the 

 bill ; her plumage, above, a sooty brown, and below of a 

 grayish white. 



270. 4NJS FUSC4, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. VELVET DUCK. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. III. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



THIS and the preceding are frequently confounded 

 together as one and the same species by our gunners 

 on the sea coast. The former, however, differs in being 

 of greater size ; in having a broad band of white across 

 the wing ; a spot of the same under the eye ; and in the 

 structure of its bill. The habits of both are very much 

 alike ; they visit us only during the winter ; feed entirely 

 on shell fish, which they procure by diving ; and return 

 to the northern regions early in spring to breed. They 

 often associate with the scoters, and are taken frequently 

 in the same nets with them. Owing to the rank, fishy 

 flavour of its flesh, it is seldom sought after by our 

 sportsmen or gunners, and is very little esteemed. 





* BEWICK. f Voyage, i. p. 120. 



