THE SCOTERS. 
49 
Puhgula perspicillata, Seebohm, Br. B. iii. p. 607 (1885). 
{Plate LX 111.) 
Adult Male. — Largerthan CE.fusca or CE. nigra; velvety-black, 
"’'th a large, nearly quadrangular patch of white on the crown, 
?-*id another triangular white patch on the nape ; bill reddish 
■n life, the base swollen and marked on each side with a large 
black spot j feet crimson externally, the inner side of the tarsus 
"^ith both sides of the inner toe orange-chrome, deepening in 
pacts to orange-vermilion ; web black, the joints with blotches 
of black; iris white. Total length, 21 inches; culmen, i’55; 
'ving, 9-3; tail, 3‘i ; tarsus, i'6. 
Count Salvador! states that in some birds, apparently quite 
adult, the white patch on the crown is absent. A careful de- 
scription of the colour of the bill and feet is given by Mr. 
Trumbull in the “Auk,” Vol. ix. pp. 153-160. 
Adult Female- — Brown above and below, whiter in the centre 
of the breast and abdomen ; feathers of the back with indistinct 
ashy-brown edges ; crown of head and nape blackish, as also 
the lores and sides of face, with a slight indication of a whitish 
patch below the eye, and another, more distinct, above the ear- 
coverts. Total length, 18 inches ; wing, 8-4. 
Young Birds. — At first resemble the old female, but tbe head 
has two distinct white patches, one near the lateral base of 
the bill, and the other over the ear-coverts, behind and below 
the eye ; the crown decidedly blackish ; the upper plumage 
also, according to Count Salvador!, is more uniform than in the 
adult female. Young males in their first full plumage are also 
like the latter, but have traces of white on the nape. Young 
females have the breast and abdomen white during the first 
autumn. Young males in putting on their black plumage 
soon develop the white nape-spot, but the white patch on 
the crown comes later. 
Characters. — In the Surf Scoter there is no white speculum in 
the wing, the feathers of the head advance much farther 
on the forehead than they do on the lores, and the swollen 
portion on the sides of the bill at the base is entirely naked 
(Salvador!). The Surf Scoter, on account of these characters, 
is sometimes placed in a distinct genus, Felionefta. 
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