AMERICAN SCOTER DUCK. 117 



Plumage full, soft, and blended. Wings very long and very narrow, 

 the humerus and cubitus being extremely elongated ; the first primai-y 

 longest, the rest very rapidly diminishing ; secondaries extremely short. 

 Tail of moderate length, cuneate, of twelve strong feathers, of which 

 the outer are rounded, the inner gradually more acute, the middle 

 feather exceeding the lateral by two inches and three-fourths. 



Bill black ; feet yellow, claws greyish- white. The head and upper 

 part of the neck are greyish-black, tinged with brown ; the rest of the 

 neck, all the lower parts, the back and rump are light brownish-grey ; 

 the scapulars darker, the wings coloured like the head ; the primary 

 quills and tail-feathers greyish-black, with white shafts. The eyelids 

 are narrowly margined with white feathers, their anterior part ex- 

 cepted. 



Length to end of tail 34 inches ; bill along the ridge 4^§, along the 

 edge of lower mandible 3/g ; wing from flexure 21 ; tail 11 ; bare part 

 of tibia 1; tarsus S/^ ; inner toe 3|^, its claw ||; middle toe 4^, 

 its claw i^j ; outer toe 41*^, its claw -^^. 



AMERICAN SCOTER DUCK. 



FuLiGULA Americana. 



PLATE CCCCVIII. Male and Female. 



The American Scoter ranges along the whole coast of our Atlantic 

 States, in the latter part of autumn and diu"ing the winter, extending 

 as far southward as the mouths of the Mississippi, beyond which I have 

 not observed it. A few pairs breed on the shores of Labrador, but the 

 great body of these birds proceed farther north, although the limits of 

 their migration in that direction are as yet imknown. 



On the 11th of July 1833, a nest of this bird was found by my 

 young companions in Labrador. It was placed at the distance of about 

 two yards from the margin of a large fresh-water pond, about a mile 

 from the shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence, under a low fir, in the 

 manner often adopted by the Eider Duck, the nest of which it some- 

 what resembled, although it was much smaller. It was composed ex- 



