450 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



thers edged with pale brown ; under eyelid and speculum, which extends to all the secondaries 

 and the tips of their coverts, white ; inside of the primaries and their inner coverts yellowish- 

 grey. Bill orpiment orange ; protuberance between the nostrils, the margins, and posterior 

 part of the under mandible, black. Irides greenish-white. Legs scarlet, with black webs. 



Form, typical. — Bill very short and broad, narrowed towards the end, where it has a large 

 unguis. Nostrils large, oval, pervious, opening into a protuberance, which forms part of the 

 forehead, that is, it is feathered posteriorly. Toes long ; the outer one exactly equal to the 

 middle one, including the nails*; the inner one three-quarters of an inch shorter. 



The Female resembles the male, but is smaller, and the plumage browner. Scapulars very 

 narrowly edged with broccoli-brown. No white mark beneath the eye, but the speculum 

 like that of the male. Bill black, slightly inflated at the base ; the unguis bluish. 



Dimensions. 



Of the male. 



inch. Lin. Inch. 



Length, total . . 25 6 Length of bill above . 1 



„ of tail ..40 „ of bill to rictus . 2 



,, of wing . . 10 9 ,, of tarsus . . 1 



Extent of wings . . 36 inches. 



Lin. 



7 



8 



10i 



Length of middle toe 

 ,, of its nail 

 ,, of outer toe , 



inch. 

 3 

 

 3 



Lin. 

 10 



"4 



— R. 



[209.] 3. Oidemia Americana. (Swainson.) American Scoter. 



Sub-family, Fuligulinae, Swains. Genus, Oidemia, Fleming. 



Scoter duck {Anas nigra). Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 556, No. 484 ? 



Fuligula (Oidemia) nigra. Bonap. Syn., p. 390, No. 334. 



Cuscusitatum. Cree Indians. Whistling duck. Hudson's Bay Residents. 



Oh. Sp. Oidemia Americana, tota fulignea, rostro nigro pone apicem contracto ; gibbositate maxilla basali totd. 

 aurantiaca, naribus rubescentibus. 



Sp. Ch. American Scoter, entirely sooty black ; bill contracted just before the tip, black, except the basal pro- 

 tuberance of the upper mandible, which is entirely orange ; nostrils red. 



Whether this new species be extremely local, or whether it has merely been 

 confounded with the European O. ?iigra, are questions we cannot at present 

 answer. That it is, however, not only perfectly distinct as a species, but even of 

 a different type to that of O. nigra, is manifest in the shape of the bill. In this, 

 the sides of the nail at the end of the upper mandible are suddenly narrowed — - 

 thus showing a very close affinity to O.fusca, which leads, by means of 0. perspi- 

 cillata, to the genus Somateria; whereas in the European 0. nigra the margin at 

 this part of the bill presents no such sinuosity or contraction, but assumes 

 the curved and more dilated form of the typical Fuligidw ; and we have thus 

 the two typical sub-generic forms of the genus. This accords, in fact, with 



* The outer nail being shorter than the middle one, the outer toe is consequently, when the nails are excluded, the 

 longest. — R. 



