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in China and Japan, from which latter country he has specimens collected by Captain Blakiston. 

 In the Nearctic Region the American form, (Edemia velvetina (Cass.), only is found. 



Judging from specimens of the American and European Velvet Scoters I have examined, the 

 differences, though slight, are constant, and enable the two forms to be clearly separated. In the 

 American bird the feathering on the upper mandible extends further forward both on the sides 

 of the bill and especially on the centre of the basal protuberance, and the white patch bordering 

 the eye is larger and extends further back. In measurements I do not find any appreciable 

 difference, except that perhaps the American bird has a slightly broader bill. 



Like the common Scoter the present species frequents the sea-coasts, except during the 

 breeding-season, when they resort to the freshwater lakes and ponds. It is a rather heavier 

 and more clumsy bird than that species, and may easily be distinguished at a considerable 

 distance by its larger size and white patch on the wing. It swims with great ease, and is an 

 excellent diver, remaining frequently some time under water; but it progresses on land clumsily, 

 and when it takes wing it rises heavily ; but when once in the air its flight is swift and often 

 protracted. It does not appear to shun boisterous weather; for I have frequently seen it diving 

 not far from the shore whilst a heavy sea was running ; and it appears to obtain its food almost 

 entirely by diving. Macgillivray says that on the Scotch coast this Duck appears to live solely 

 on bivalve mollusca of the genera Mactra, Tellina, Solen, Mytilus, Cardium, and others ; and 

 some which he examined from the Bay of Kirkaldy had their gizzards filled exclusively with 

 Donax trunculus. 



The nest of this Scoter is on the ground, near some inland sheet of water, and, so far as 

 I know, never close to salt water. I have, however, found a nest on one of the small islands 

 outside Uleaborg, in the Gulf of Bothnia, where the water is fresh or only slightly brackish. 

 The nest is a mere depression in the soil under a bush, well lined with down intermatted with 

 grass and a few leaves ; and the number of eggs, which are usually deposited late in June or early 

 in July, varies from eight to ten. Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown, who found a nest on the 

 Petchora, near Stanavoialachta, and shot the female as she rose from it, say that it was under 

 a creeping matted dwarf birch, far from any water, and contained eight eggs and a good supply 

 of down. Mr. Collett informs me that nests he has found in Norway contained from eight to 

 ten eggs, and that, as a rule, this Duck breeds rather late in the season, most eggs being found 

 in the latter half of June or early in July. Not unfrequently the same pair will occupy the 

 same nest several seasons in succession. Eggs of this Duck in my collection are uniform ivory- 

 white with yellowish buff tinge, and measure from 2f § by Iff inch to 2ff by Iff inch in size. 



The specimens figured are the adult male and female above described, both of which are in 

 my collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a,<$ ad. Stockholm, May 30th, 1870 {Meves). b, d 1 ad. Stockholm, May 30th, 1871 (Meves). c, $ ad., 

 d, 6 juv. Archangel (Piottuch). e, pull. Near Nykoping, Sweden, July 26th, 1872 (Meves). 



E Mus. H. B. Tristram. 

 «, 6 , b, $ . Orkneys (Dunn) . 



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