82 HISTORY OF 



bays, and amidst the tumbling surf. They are shy birds, and 

 not easily approached ; and are common, in winter, along the 

 whole coast, from the river St. Lawrence to Florida. 



The Surf Duck has the bill of an orange yellow, with a four- 

 cornered rather diamond-shaped patch of black on the side, 

 near the base of the upper mandible. The bill, as in the rest of 

 its genus, is raised at the base, and short and thick in propor- 

 tion to the size of the bird. Plumage, in general, dead black, 

 but slightly glossed on the sides of the neck ; a patch of 

 white on the occiput ; another elongated one down the back of 

 the neck. 



The female is dusky brown ; lighter about the neck and 

 belly ; the raised part of the bill not so prominent as in the 

 male. Size about that of the Velvet Duck, or rather smaller. 

 Length of the male, one foot four inches ; of the female, one 

 foot three inches : length of the bill from gape to apex, two 

 inches and six lines. The female of the Black Scoter is not 

 very unlike the bird of the same sex in this species ; but they 

 may easily be distinguished : in the first place, by the length of 

 the bill, that of Oidemia Perspicillata being the longest ; and 

 also by the grey marking on the cheeks and behind the eye, the 

 same colour being in O. Nigra confined to the throat. 



Another species, nearly allied to the two just mentioned, has 

 been introduced by Dr. Fleming, in his " British Animals," 

 into the British Fauna, viz. Oidemia Leucocephala, Stephens, or 

 White-headed Duck ; but as it appears to be only on the suppo- 

 sition, that the female of O. Nigra may have been mistaken for 

 it, we have not admitted it into our work. Should the species 

 occur to any of our readers, they will at once be able to distin- 

 guish it by the situation of the hind toe, which is placed much 

 higher on the tarsi in the White-headed Duck than on the 



