ScoTer. NATATORES. OIDEMIA. 331 
unnoticed by naturalists, furnish characteristics of sufficient 
apparent value (as I have before stated), to warrant its sepa- 
ration from them. ‘The trachea also does not possess the 
distinct and well defined enlargements, or bony swellings, so 
conspicuous in the other two species, but gradually increases 
from the larynx to the middle, where it attains its greatest 
diameter, from whence it again decreases to the lower larynx 
or bone of divarication, which is slightly swollen, and to 
which the bronchi, formed of cartilaginous rings, and of a 
greater diameter than any part of the tracheal tube, are at- 
tached. Upon land this bird walks with difficulty, and in a 
semi-erect position, from the posterior situation of the legs. 
It abounds throughout the northern parts of Europe, Asia, 
and America, and is found during the summer in very high 
latitudes. It breeds near to the coast, or on the banks of 
rivers, within the course of the tides, or upon the edges of 
such inland seas as it may frequent. The nest.is formed of 
grass and other vegetable matter, mixed and lined with a 
quantity of its own down; and the eggs, from six to ten in 
number, are white. The gizzard of this species is of great 
size and muscular power, well adapted for triturating the 
shelly and tough food upon which, as I have before noticed, 
it subsists. Dr FLemrne, in his History of British Animals, 
has inserted the White-headed Duck (Oidemia leucocephala), 
as a rare British species, but his description, both as to size 
and plumage, does not accord with those of LatHam. and 
Temmincx. I am therefore inclined to think that he has 
mistaken the young or female of the Black Scoter for the 
above species; or that he has described one hitherto un- 
noticed, but nearly allied to our present bird. The latter, 
T suspect, to be the case, as I possess a specimen said to have 
been killed upon the Scottish coast, which I cannot reconcile 
with Oid. nigra. The plumage of this bird (which I take 
to be a female or young male) is blackish-brown above; the 
lower parts pale broccoli-brown, with lighter undulations; the 
crown of the head, occiput, and nape of the neck, deep black- 
Nest, &c. 
