The Velvet-Scoter 67 
change (July-November). The breast and lower parts are brown, and the tail and wings 
are being renewed. The bird was incapable of flight when I shot it. The legs and toes are 
yellow, only dark about the joints and webs as usual. (See Velvet-Scoter plate.) 
Bmnahire Fe^nale. — First plumage similar to the young male, only not so dark, nor is 
the bill so broad. In November the sexes are easily distinguished, and a change of plum- 
age towards maturity takes place over the head and neck, upper breast, and scapulars. In 
April the change, so far as it goes, is more or less complete for the year, only the under 
parts, tail, wings, and portions of the upper parts remaining in an immature and faded state 
until the main moult in July and August. In November the female attains full plumage at 
17 months. It is doubtful if these females breed at 22 months. 
Adult Female. — These are of two distinct types : (i) grey, and (2) rich red-brown. 
Grey Form. — Head and neck blackish-brown ; a large grey-white patch in front of the 
eye and a small white one over the ear ; upper parts blackish-brown with lighter margins ; 
under parts light brown with greyish-white ends to the feathers ; wings brown and secon- 
daries white, with black-brown ends to outer feathers ; bill bluish lead-black, without any 
knob ; irides reddish dark brown ; legs dull red. 
Red-brown Form. — I am unable to state whether this form is a plumage of older birds 
or not, but on the breeding grounds both the grey and the red-brown forms are found in 
equal numbers. In the dark form the whole of the head, neck, upper and under parts are 
much darker and of a richer reddish-brown than the grey form. The white patches both before 
and behind the eye are almost, and in some cases completely, absent.^ The whole of the 
under parts are a rich warm brown, only a few feathers in the centre of the breast being 
brown, with the upper parts of these feathers showing pure w^hite. Over the whole of the 
brown under parts the feathers are edged with a very narrow line of whitish-grey. I have 
killed a good number of these old females, and am surprised to find that this plumage has 
not been described. Only the grey form is figured by Dresser, Naumann, Saunders, Gould, 
Lilford, and other writers of standard works. 
Length, 21 inches; wing, 10 inches; tarsus, i inch. 
Breeding Range. 
{Scotland. — There is no reliable evidence that this species has ever bred in Scotland, 
although a few adults stay throughout the summer every year. For supposed occurrences 
of its breeding, see Dresser, Birds of Etirope, vi. p. 658, and Vert. Fattna of Moray 
Basin, ii. p. 116.] 
Co7ttinental Europe: Norway.— Sc^ivct in lakes near the coast, but breeds in all 
the fjeld districts of Northern Norway and East Finmark (Westerlund, Skandinaviska 
Fogl. Fortplant7iingshist., p. 175). I have seen old birds and young on the lakes of 
North Trondhjem in August. Professor Collett informs me that it breeds as far 
south as Christiania. 
Sweden.— BvQQds in the fjeld districts of Jemtland, and Lapland, and Tornea 
Lappmark; also sporadically in Blekinge and S. Skane, and the E. coasts of Oland 
and Gotland (Westerlund, /. c). Kolthoff doubts these latter cases. 
^ This IS not invariably the case. There is a specimen of the dark red-brown type of female in the Christiania Museum, killed 
m Halhngdal, August 15, 1881, which has an unusually large white patch on the lobes and the smaller one on the ear coverino-s 
J. G. M. 
