BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 69 
The same gentleman says that he has seen quite a number of 
them flying over the level prairies in the vicinity of Herman, 
and he has shot several without suspecting it was a rare species 
in the State. The section mentioned where those were obtained 
is a level prairie for a long distance, and abounds with shallow 
ponds so much exposed as to make them the safest of resorts 
for water birds in general, with which it verily swarms in their 
flocking seasons. It was through Mr. Washburn’s courtesy 
that I learned of this pair of King Eiders having been obtained. 
As the locality is a favorite hunting resort of mine, and Mr. 
P. H. Clague resides there, a friend who loves ducks (to eat) 
as well as I do (to list,) 1 propose to settle this regal question 
if it takes a good many duck-seasons to do it in. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Body and wings, black; the portion anterior to the shoulder 
joint, interscapular region in part, most of neck and throat, 
white; jugulum with a creamy tinge; a narrow border to the 
frontal process of the bill and their interspace, small space 
around the eye and a V-shaped mark on the chin, black; top of 
head and nape bluish-ash, slightly spotted with black; middle 
wing coverts, tips of secondaries, axillars, most of under sur- 
face of wing, and a patch on each side of the rump, white; 
sides of head glossed with transparent emerald-green; the 
scapulars have the black tinged with slate. 
Length, 21.50; wing, 10.70; tarsus, 1.85; commissure, 2.53. 
Habitat, northern North America. 
OIDEMIA AMERICANA Swarnson & RICHARDSON.  (163.) 
AMERICAN SCOTER. 
Only occasionally observed about our smaller inland lakes, 
these Ducks are not uncommon in the vicinity of Duluth on 
Lake Superior in pairs or quite small parties. Sportsmen 
familiar with the seacoast Ducks tell me they sometimes meet 
the Scoters, or ‘‘ Coots” in considerable numbers on the shores 
of Mille Lacs lake. In the winter of 1867 and ’68, and again in 
1874 and ’75, I found several of them in openings where spring- 
brooks entered the streams, as I did also in the turbulent rapids 
below the Falls of St. Anthony. I have in a few instances seen 
individuals of both sexes in the collections of the local taxider- 
mists. lam informed by Mr. Holzinger of Winona, that one 
specimen is in the possession of Professor Heaton, of the Nor- 
mal school at Winona, which he obtained on the Mississippi, 
just above that city. My observations embrace only the sea- 
