SEA DUCKS. 229 



white spaces, the females are sooty black or grey, and lack the . 

 curiously turgid bills of the male. 



In the Scoter the bill is scarcely encroached upon by the frontal 

 feathers, is shorter than head, swollen above at the base, and 

 orange in color in the male. Tail of sixteen feathers. Male black. 

 Female sooty brown, pale grey below. Male about two feet long. 

 Sea coast and larger inland waters of United States in winter. 



CEdemia /usca. —Vlem. Velvet Scoter. White-winged Surf-Duck. White- 

 winged Coot. Bell-tongue Coot. 



Bill black orange tipped, shorter than head. Male black with 

 a white wing-patch and spot under the eye. Iris white. Female 

 sooty brown, pale grey below, with the white wing-patch and 

 some white about the head. Length two feet. Distribution same 

 as last, but more abundant. 



CEdemia i>erspicillata, — Steph, Surf Duck. Sea Coot. Skunk-head. Snnff- 



taker. 



Bill in the male much swollen at sides as well as above, orange 

 led, white on sides and with a large circulf r black spot on each 

 side at the base. Tail of fourteen feathers. Male black with a 

 triangular white patch on the forehead and another on the occiput. 

 Female smaller, sooty brown, paler below, white patches on sides 

 of head before and behind the eye. Size of first. Atlantic coast 

 in winter. Variety trowbridgei. Pacific Coast. 



Our Sound, protected by Long Island from the billows and 

 fierce breakers of the Atlantic, with its many quiet bays and in- 

 lets, its gently sloping, sandy shores and shallow waters, abound- 

 ing in moUusca and small shell fish, is the favorite resort of count- 

 less numbers of water-fowl, from their first arrival from the 

 northern breeding grounds, about the middle of September, until 

 their departure again in April and May. The first species which 

 arrives here in the early autumn are the Surf Ducks — a beautiful 

 bird, glossy black, with a white patch on the top of the head and 

 another on the nape of the neck, from which coloring it has re- 

 ceived the name of " skunk head " from our gunners. Its mate 

 dressed in a sober suit of brown and grey, is called the grey coot, 

 and is very generally considered an entirely different species. The 

 ducks of this species which first arrive keep far out on the Sound. 



