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) 136. 



Fuligula Americana, Audubon. Orn. Biog., V. (1839) 117. /&., 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 



