808 U. S. p. R E. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOaY — GENERAL REPORT. 



List of sjpecimens. 



OIDEMIA (PELIONETTA) BIMACULATA, Baird. 



Huron Scoter. 



Fuligula Urmmlata, Herbert, Field Sports U, S, 2d ed. II, 1848, 366. With wood-cut figure. 



Sp. Ch. — Bill shorter than the head. Nostrils nearer to the tip than to the angle of the mandibles by nearly one-fifth. 

 Feathers advancing on the top of the bill for about one-third its length. 



Bill bluish black; iris brown; legs and feet dusky crimson. General color sooty black. Forehead, encroaching on the upper 

 mandible, dull brownish black; chin, throat, and upper breast, dark cinereous gray. Belly and vent lighter than the breast, and 

 more silvery. Under tail coverts and beneath the tail dark dingy gray, tender wing coverts dark cinereous gray. Secondaries 

 snowy white. A dingy white patch anterior to the eye, and occupying the whole insertion of the upper mandible from the front 

 downwards. Posterior and slightly inferior to the eye is a larger and brighter white spot, of an elongated and acute oval form 

 running towards the nape. Female generally similar, but more dingy ; more silvery gray beneath. Legs and feet dusky orange. 

 Size less. 



Length, 18.50 ; bill along gape, 2.20 ; from extremity of front to tip, 1,50 ; wing, 10.50 ; extent, 24.50 ; tarsus, 1.60 ; middle and 

 outer toe, 2.90 ; inner toe, 2.50 ; weight, 2J pounds. 



Bob. — Lake Huron and adjacent waters in fall and winter. 



In the preceding description, condensed from the original account by Herbert, (Frank 

 Forester^) will be found a notice of a scoter, supposed by him to be new. If the bird described 

 were really an adult, there can be no question as to it being a fifth species of American Oidemia. 

 The shape of bill is like that of Pelionetta perspiciUata, but differs in being black throughout 

 instead of red. The colors of body are more those of Melanetta velvetina, in the white seconda- 

 ries, and white patch behind the eye, and in the absence of the white patches on top of head 

 and on the nape of P. perspiciUata. 



The only reason to suspect immaturity is on account of the absence of the continuous and 

 velvet black color all over the body, except where relieved by white, so characteristic of all 

 adult males of the genus Oidemia. Still this would not explain the combination of the bill of 

 Felionetta with the colors of Melanetta, the former never having white secondaries. A hybrid 

 between the two might possibly account for this union, but in the large number of specimens 

 referred to by Herbert this is not likely to have been the case. 



SOMATERIA, Leach. 



Samaieria, Leaoh, in Fleming's Philos. Zool. 1822. Type Anas molliesma, L. 

 Ch,— Bill much compressed, tapering to the tip ; the nail enormously large, and forming the terminal portion of the bill, and 

 much decurved. The feathers of forehead advancing forward in an acute long point, separating on each side a frontal extension 

 or linear process, or the feathers of the cheek may be said to extend a considerable distance along the commissural edge of the 

 bill. Nostrils situated anterior to the middle of the commissure. Tail rather pointed, but short ; of 14 feathers. 



