468 VELVET-SCOTER. 
lands. At sea off the northern and eastern coasts of Ireland this 
species is not uncommon, but on the west side it is almost unknown. 
To the Feroes the Velvet-Scoter is a very rare wanderer, and 
it has not yet been obtained in Iceland, and only once in Greenland. 
In Scandinavia and Northern Russia it is common on the lakes of 
the interior during the summer, and according to Taczanowski it 
breeds as far south as Podolia, while Naumann states that it occa- 
sionally nests in Mecklenburg. In winter it visits the Baltic, the 
North Sea, and the waters of Western Europe ; and on migration it 
crosses the Alps to the Adriatic, also reaching the Black Sea and the 
Caspian. In Siberia Mr. Popham found it as far east as the mouth 
of the Yenesei ; but the representative species in Eastern Siberia is 
G. carbo, which visits Japan and China in winter and may occur in 
Alaska. Throughout North America the representative species is 
@. velvetina (GE. deglandi)—a rather smaller bird, the male of 
which presents some differences in the form of the bill. 
The nest, seldom made before the end of June, is placed in a 
dry spot under some bush or tree, often at a considerable distance 
from fresh water, and is lined with leaves and down. The eggs, 
8-10 in number, are of a clear creamy-white and rather large for 
the size of the bird: measurements 2°75 by 19 in. As a rule 
the Velvet-Scoter keeps further out at sea than the preceding species, 
during the winter ; it dives deeper, and remains down longer. Its 
food consists largely of molluscs, and its flesh is rank. 
The adult male has the plumage velvet-black,-except a small 
white patch behind each eye anda conspicuous white bar across 
each wing (which gives the bird when flying the appearance of an 
old Blackcock) ; bill apricot-yellow, with an elevated black basal 
tubercle, from which a narrow dark line runs diagonally above each 
nostril to the nail and is continued backwards to the gape; irides 
white; legs and toes orange-red, webs black. Length 22 in.; 
wing 10°75 in. Inthe female the upper plumage is sooty-brown, 
and the under parts are lighter; there is a large dull white patch 
before—and a smaller one behind—each eye ; the white wing-bar is 
less defined than in the male, and the bill is dark lead-colour with a 
smaller basal tubercle ; legs and toes dull red. The young are like 
the female. 
