Duck-shooting 



177 



basal half of lower mandible, black, the remainder, lake-red ; 



general plumage, jet-black ; eyelids and spots under the eyes, 



white; speculum, white; iris, white; legs and feet, carmine, 



with black webs. 

 Measurements Length, 22 inches ; wing, n inches; culmen, 1.60 



inches; tarsus, 1.90 inches. 

 Adult female General plumage, sooty brown, darkest above ; 



speculum, white, no white spot on head ; bill, dusky ; feet and 



legs, brownish orange ; webs, black. 

 Young male Resembles the female after the first year; however, 



has traces of the white spot under the eye, and the bill begins 



to assume the characteristics of the adult male. 

 Eggs Eight to ten in number; white, measuring 2.90 by 1.90 



inches. 

 Habitat Northern portions of eastern hemisphere ; breeding from 



Iceland to Bering Straits, accidental in Greenland. 



This bird has all of the habits and characteris- 

 tics of the white-winged scoter, closely resembling 

 it in plumage, but is readily distinguished by the 

 bill. 



The velvet scoter usually spends the winter in 

 the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland and in the 

 Baltic ; but when very cold weather turns their 

 winter quarters to a mass of ice, they appear in 

 myriads near Heligoland. There they gather 

 with the black scoters and other sea-ducks on the 

 lee of the ice-fields. Large and clumsy, like our 

 scoters, they find it difficult to rise from the 

 water except against the wind. They are willing 

 to change their shellfish diet for something better 

 when opportunity offers, Gatke tells us. A ship 

 laden with small gray beans stranded on the 



