127. 
ANATIDE —FULIGULINE!: SEA DUCKS. 705 
chiefly purple and violet. A large triangular or crescentic white spot before eye, running up 
in a point, applied against the whole side of base of bill, White area on wing more or less 
divided by a dark bar resulting from extension of the dark bases of the greater coverts. 
Averaging larger than the last; length 19.00-22.50; extent 30.00 or more; wing 9.00-10.00 ; 
tarsus 1.60; bill as before, thus relatively shorter. Europe, Iceland; Greenland; N. Ain., 
northerly; in winter S. to N. Y. and Utah; breeds in the R. Mts. of U. S. and in high lat- 
itudes. Not common with us. Seems well distinguished from C. glauciwm, though the 9 
is not easily discriminated. It may usually be recognized by the occipital crest, the division 
of the white area on the wing, and the extensively parti-colored bill, which is blotched with 
reddish. : 
C: albe/ola. (Lat. albeola or albula, dim. of albus, white. Fig. 491.) BurriE-HEAb. 
BUTTER-BALL. SPIRIT-DUCK. DipreR. Bill with nostrils rather behind than before its 
middle line. Adult g: Head particularly puffy with much lengthened feathers of lateral and 
hind parts, splendidly 
various with purple- 
violet and green irides- 
cence; a large snowy 
patch on each side be- 
hind eye, blending on 
nape with its fellow. 
Bill dull bluish with 
dusky nail and base. 
Eyes brown. Feet 
pale flesh-color, with 
blackish claws. Up- 
per parts at large 
black, fading to gray- 
ish-white posteriorly. 
Lower neck all around, 
under parts at large, 
seapulars in part, 
nearly all the wing- 
coverts, and most of Fi. 491.— Buffie-head. (From Lewis.) 
the secondaries, white. Outer scapulars white, edged with black; inner secondaries velvet- 
black; sides and sometiines across lower belly shaded with dusky; lining of wings mixed 
dusky and white. 9 much smaller than ¢; head scarcely puffy, but a thin compressed nuchal 
elongation of the feathers; dusky gray, with trace at least of the white space of the g@, and 
comthonly a white touch under eye. Bill dusky; feet livid bluish-gray, with dusky webs. 
Above at large dusky-gray or blackish, with white speculum on outer webs only of five or six 
secondaries; below white, shaded into dark along sides and across fore-breast and lower belly. 
Thus a very small insignificant-looking duck, but easily recognized on that very score ; notice 
flap of hind toe, livid feet, dark bill, white spot on dark head behind eye, ete. Length of 9 
12.75-15.00; extent 22.00-25.00; wing 6.00-7.00; tarsus 1.10-1.24; middle toe and claw 
2.00-2,25 ; bill 1.00, along gape 1.40. @ at or about the lesser of these dimensions. N. Am. 
at large, and casual in Europe; U.'S. in winter, one of the most abundant ducks; breeds from 
N. border of U.S. to high latitudes. The drake in full feather is one of the handsomest 
ducks, dressed in broad black and white in artistic contrast, to say nothing of the brilliancy of 
the head. Noted for its adroitness in diving to escape a shot, as smartly as a grebe, and on 
that account known in some of our elegant vernacular as ‘“hell-diver.” The flesh is little 
esteemed, so it is just as well there is so little of it. Nest feathery, in a tree; eggs up to 14, 
45 
