WILD FOWL 
DIVING-DUCKS 
T he diving -ducks are easily distinguished from the surface - 
feeding species (p. 323) by having the hind toe widely lobed 
(see fig. 3, p. 290). The bill is broad and flattened, or moder- 
ately so, and is at least 0 *4 of an inch wide at the tip, which is 
not conspicuously hooked. The legs are shorter and placed 
further back on the body, and the feet are larger, which assists 
the birds in swimming and diving, but renders their gait on land very 
awkward. The plumage in the two sexes is different during the greater 
part of the year, except when the males assume the eclipse-plumage after 
the breeding-season, when in some species they resemble the females. 
COMMON SCOTER 
(EDEMIA NIGRA 
(Plate XXIX, Fig. 1) 
Oidemia nigra, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 378 (1837). 
(Edemia nigra. Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 663, pi. 449 (1877) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, 
part xxii, pi. (1892); Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 401 (1895); Saunders, lU. 
Man. Brit. Birds, p. 465 (1899). 
DULT male. — Entire plumage velvety-black, with a slight 
purplish gloss on the head and neck; breast and belly 
i duller, more smoky-black; inner webs of the primary 
quills, except the tips, whitish -brown; the terminal half 
g of the first primary greatly attenuated, the second less 
aL.so, and the third, fourth and fifth slightly. Iris dark- 
brown; bill black, except a yellow patch on the culmen surrounding the 
nostrils; base swollen on either side; legs and feet brownish -black, webs 
darker. Total length about 20 inches; culmen 1 ‘8 inch; wing 9’0 inches; 
tail 3*7 inches; tarsus 1 *7 inch. 
Adult female . — Above dark brown, darkest on the top of the head; 
paler on the cheeks, throat and under parts, which are largely brownish - 
white, somewhat mottled with brown on the breast; no white on the 
secondary quills, but the inner webs of the primaries are paler, as in the 
YY 345 
