ANATIDiE, DUCKS. GEN. 269. 



293 



^-/ ^ ( 



s'! 



European imder name of S. dresseri, by Mr. Sharpc, but I doubt the 

 exclusive pertinence of the assigned characters. . . mollissima (var?). 

 Pacific Eider. Precisely like the last, excepting a V-shaped black mark 

 on the chin ; may require to be treated as merely a variety. Arctic and 

 North Pacific coast, com- =e^ 

 mon. Bd., 810; Elliot, p 



pi. 48. . . . V-NIGRA. ^ 



" King Eider. Bill with =^^ 

 broad squarish nearly ver- 

 tical frontal processes bulg- 

 ing angularly out of line 

 with cuhnen. ^ in breed- 

 ing attire black, including 

 a forked chin-patch, a 

 frontal band, and small 

 space round eye ; the neck 

 and fore parts oi the body, 

 part of interscapulars, ot 

 wing coverts and of lining ^* 

 of wings, and a flank patch, 

 white, creamy on the jug- 

 ulum, greenish on sides ot 

 head ; crown and nape fine 

 bluish-ash. 9 resembling 

 that of the common eider, 

 but bill different. Size of the last, or rather less. Both coasts, arctic 

 and northerly; S. in winter sometimes to New York. Nutt., ii, 414; 

 AuD., vi, 347, pi. 404; Bd., 810. 



SPECTABILIS. 



i^lL 



269. Genus CEDEMIA Fleming. 



*jf* Embracing the black sea-ducks, snrf-dueks, scoters or "coots" as they are 

 variously called : maritime mollusk-eating species, scarcely fit for food ; $ black, 

 relieved or not by definite 'vvliite patches on head or wings, or both, with brightly 

 parti-colored bill, very broad at the end, singularly gibbous at base, but of different 

 form in each of the following species, unnecessarily causing their separation into 

 the three genera, mentioned below ; ? sooty-brown, etc., bill simply turgid at base, 

 much widened at end ; but may be known by having the nostrils at the middle of 

 the bill or bej'ond it, the nail broad, fused, occupj'ing all the tip, the frontal feathers 

 reaching further on culmen than on sides of upper mandible, and forming no 

 reentrauce at its bacls: upper corner ; j'oung $ resembling the 9 . Our three 

 species inhabit both coasts, and sometimes the larger inland waters, breeding 

 northward; they occur abundantly in winter along the whole length of the U. S. 



A-merican Elach Scoter. Bill scarcely encroached upon hj the frontal 

 feathers, shorter than the head, black, the gibbosity superior, circumscribed, 

 orange ( <? ) ; nostrils at its middle ; tail normally 16-feathered. (^CEdemia.) 

 Plumage of $ entirely black. 9 sooty-brown, paler below, becomino; 



