the American Scoter 



No. 367 



American Scoter 



A. 0. U. No. 163. Oidemia nigra americana Swainson. 



Synonyms. — American Black Scoter. Sea Coot. Black Coot. 



Description. — Adult male: Entire plumage black, glossy and sooty; outline 

 of feathers at base of bill not peculiar; base of culmen (especially during breeding 

 season) swelled or knobbed, — the knob orange, the rest of the bill, including eyes, 

 black. Adult female and young: Sooty gray or fuscous whitening on belly, also on 

 throat, sides of head, and neck, where contrasting with dark fuscous of crown and nape; 

 outline of feathers at base of bill substantially as in male, but culmen not gibbous. 

 Length 457.2-558.8 (18.00-22.00); wing 228.6 (9.00); tail 76.2 (3.00); bill (chord of 

 culmen 43.2 (1.70); tarsus 45.7 (1.80). 



Recognition Marks. — Mallard size; plumage solid black; female fuscous, 

 lightening below and on sides of neck; loral feathering not peculiar. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On the ground in marshes 

 of the northern interior, and on the bluffs of the seacoasts; of grasses or dead leaves, 

 lined with feathers or down. Eggs: 6 to 10; pale ivory yellow. Av. size 64.8 x 45.7 

 (2.55 x 1.80). 



Range of Oidemia nigra. — Northern part of the Northern Hemisphere. Breeds 

 chiefly in sub-Arctic regions and migrates south in winter to the Baltic, the coasts 

 of western Europe, Japan, and New Jersey. 



Range of 0. n. americana. — Northern North America and northeastern Asia. 

 Breeds in northeastern Siberia and from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, south to the Aleu- 

 tians; also in the northeastern section of America south to Newfoundland. Winters 

 on the Asiatic Coast to Japan and from the islands of Bering Sea south diminishingly 

 to southern California; interiorly to the Great Lakes, and casually to Louisiana; on 

 the Atlantic Coast from Newfoundland to Maine, and decreasingly south even to 

 Florida. 



Occurrence in California. — Not common winter visitor coastwise. Grinnell, 

 Bryant, and Storer record a dozen instances; and I have seen them five times at Santa 

 Barbara. 



Authorities. — Newberry (Oidemia americana), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. vi., 

 1857, p. 104 (San Francisco); Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 26 (status 

 in s. Calif.); Dwight, Auk, vol. xxxi., 1914, p. 298, pis. (molts and plumages). 



"SCAT!" says the housewife, when pussy starts to sharpen her claws 

 on the oleander tree, "S s s s cat!" In some such way may have origi- 

 nated the commoner name of sea-coot — a hiss to start the uneasy fowl 

 in motion — "Ssss you coot. S'coot!" whence, of course, Scooter and 

 Scoter, the bird that scoots. Whatever philologists may think of this 

 derivation, it has at least the virtue of plausibility, and we shall remember 

 that those ungainly black fowls which are forever getting in the way of 

 steamboats, and shuffling off with wheezy complaint, are Scooters. 

 Now and then, if we are watchful, we shall see a little company of black 



/c??0 



