328 anatidjE : swans, geese, and ducks. 



(male) ; nail broad and truncate ; gibbosity superior, circum- 

 scribed. Male black, with a large white wing-patch, and another 

 under the eye ; feet orange-red, with dusky webs. Size of the 

 the last, or rather larger. Female smaller, sooty-brown, pale 

 grayish below, with much whitish about head, but showing white ■ 

 speculum ; bill all black. Said to differ from the European 

 by greater encroachment of feathers on bill, but the ascribed 

 feature is not tangible. 



This is the most numerous of the three species of the 

 genus, occurring as a winter visitant, and still more 

 abundantly during the migrations. It usually appears 

 during the latter part of September, and works its way 

 southward by October, some individuals remaining until 

 well into May of the following spring. It is strictly 

 maritime, only exceptionally seen away from the coast. 

 It would appear that during the migrations the old 

 birds, or perhaps the old males, move apart from the 

 others. The bill being differently shaped and colored in 

 these cases, some gunners have supposed that there 

 is more than one species. All the members of this 

 genus are often called "Coots," or "Sea-Coots," with 

 other epithets designating the different species. 



SURF DUCK; SEA-COOT. 

 CEdemia perspicillata {L.) Steph. 



Chars. Bill narrowly encroached upon by the frontal feathers, on 

 the culmen nearly or quite to the nostrils, but not at all upon its 

 sides, about as long as head, with the nail narrowed anteriorly, 

 the swelling lateral as well as superior ; nostrils beyond its 

 middle ; bill of male orange-red, whitish on the sides, with a 

 large circular black base. Plumage of male black, with a white 



