BLACK SCOTER. 
167 
of Fundy. On several parts of the continental 
shores it appears more common than on our own 
southern coasts, and Mr. Yarrell has described a 
kind of Christmas battu which takes place annually, 
in which the flocks are surrounded by boats and 
numbers killed. Something similar is said also to 
take place in Corsica. 
It is a smaller species than the last, but some- 
what resembling it in form, the tail being rather more 
wedge-shaped and lengthened. There is not a spot 
of white on the whole bird, the feathers on the head 
and neck are slightly elongated, their form marked, 
and have a rich gloss of indigo-blue. The remain- 
ing plumage is a deep dull black ; the first quill has 
a considerable emargination ; the bill black, tarsi and 
feet blackish red. Female blackish brown, paler 
beneath. 
The last form which we have to notice among 
the British ducks is that of the Eiders, Somateria 
Leach, composed of large heavy birds, having the 
bill enlarged or swollen at the base. In their habits 
they are completely maritime. One bird which we 
place provisionally among them, we do so with 
some doubt, not having been able to examine it 
minutely ; by ornithologists also it has been shifted 
from genus to genus, and four different generic terms 
