BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



223 



the nostril by narrow space, knob on upper mandible feathered; bill wonder- 

 fully varied with orange, red, black and white; pliimage black, speculum 

 and spot behind the eye white. Female: Sooty brown or dusky grayish 

 brown, lighter below; speculum white. Winter and immature: Similar 

 to female, sometimes grayish white patch at base of bill and in the ear 

 region. 



Length 20-23 inches; wing 10. 7-1 1.5; bill, culmen 1.4-1.7; depth of 

 upper mandible at base 1.1-1.3; tarsus 1.75-2.08. 



Field marks. This bird may be recognized at long distance on account 

 of the black plumage with white speculum. 



The White-winged scoter or White-winged coot is the most abundant 

 of our three scoters and the most generally distributed throughout the 

 State, occurring on inland waters both as a spring and fall migrant, and 

 a winter visitor on the Great Lakes; on the coast it is an abundant winter 

 visitant. It arrives on our waters from the 15th of September to the ist 

 of October and leaves us again on its northward jotimey from the ist to 

 the 15th of May. It is the only scoter which is common on the interior 

 lakes in the spring and is often seen in large flocks during late May when the 

 males are in perfect plumage and their bills brilliantly colored. During 

 the fall it is chiefly young birds which are taken on the lakes. This is the 

 nearctic or North American representative of the Velvet duck, breeding 

 from Dakota and southern Labrador to the Arctic coast, and wintering 

 from the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Great Lakes to South Carolina, 

 chiefly along the coast. 



These scoters prefer to gather in large flocks at sea or on the open 

 waters of bays, lakes and rivers, especially over the beds of moUusks which 

 abound in the waters of Long Island and the Great Lakes On the coast 

 they feed principally on clams and scallops, but in the interior fresh -water 

 mussels are equally sought after. They are more nocttomal or crepuscular 

 in habit than the Scaup or Redhead. 



