BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



163 



SURF SCOTER (Oidemia persptcHlata) . 



Common or local names : Gray Coot; Horsehead; SkunkbiU; Skunkhead; Skunk-top; 

 Surfer; Google-nose; Patchhead; PatchpoUed Coot; Pictured-bill; Plaster-biU; 

 Snuff-taker; Butterboat-billed Coot; Butterboat-bill; Hollow-billed Coot; Brown 

 Coot. 



Female. 



Male. 



Length. — 18 to 21 inches. 



AduU Male. — Triangular patch on forehead and longer one on hind neck 

 white; rest of plumage glossy black, duller below; bUl showing crim- 

 son, orange, scarlet, yellow, black and white; feet crimson and reddish 

 orange; iris pearl white or pale cream. 



Adult Female. — Top of head blackish, usually more or less grayish white 

 on side of head below level of eye, sometimes divided into two patches; 

 rest of plumage sooty brown, silvery gray below; feet, bill and iris dark. 



Young. — - Similar to female. Yoimg males and possibly females have two 

 patches of grayish white below level of eye, one before and the other 

 behind it. 



Field Marks. — Male distinguished from other Scoters by patch of white on 

 hind neck. Female and young distinguished from White-winged Scoter 

 by lack of white on wing, and from American Scoter by grayish white 

 on side of head, sometimes but not always divided into two patches. 



Season. — ^ Abundant migrant coastwise; common to abundant in winter, 

 rare in summer. 



Range. — North America. Breeds on the Pacific coast from Kotzebue 

 Sound to Sitka, and from northwestern Mackenzie and Hudson Strait 

 to Great Slave Lake, central Keewatin' and northern Quebec; non- 

 breeding birds occiu' in summer in northeastern Siberia and south on 

 the Pacific coast to Lower California, and in Greenland and south 

 on the Atlantic coast to Long Island; winters on the Pacific coast 

 from the Aleutian Islands south to San Quintin Bay, Lower California, 



