100 
Distribution. Northern parts of both hemispheres. Breeds along our whole northern 
coast and the islands north of them. We have no records for the western interior or the 
west coast. 
Scoters 
The Scoters, comprising the genus Oidemia, are large, heavily-built 
birds, and with the Eiders the largest of our Ducks. Males are solid black 
with only small spots of white. The bills are swollen at the base and 
highly coloured. The females are coloured in heavy masses of dark brown 
or nearly black, without distinct pattern. 
Distinctions. The males are the only Ducks approaching solid black or with the 
peculiarly swollen bills (Figures 137 and 138). The females are the only solidly, dark- 
coloured Ducks without definite pattern. 
Distribution. Northern parts of both hemispheres. 
Scoters are expert divers and feed largely on shells and crustaceans. 
In the summer, large flocks of males and non-breeding females gather in 
the middle of the larger waters and on the seacoast in the kelp beds. 
They seem to get most of their food from the bottom, even in water of 
considerable depth. 
163. American Scoter, black sea coot, buttert-nosed scoter. Oidemia amer- 
icana. L, 19. Adult male : solid coal black with base of bill swollen and coloured bright 
yellow. Female: brown, lightening on throat, cheeks, and abdomen and with a rather 
sharply-defined dark cap (Figure 137). 
Distinctions. The solid black plumage of the male, unrelieved by any colour, and the 
yellow bill enlargement are very distincive. The female resembles the female Surf Scoter 
very closely. The light colour on the face is more 
evenly distributed and not broken into patches aB is 
usually the case in the latter species. The most 
reliable distinction seems to be the bill. In the female 
American, the forehead feathering does not extend 
down the culmen as it does in the Surf Scoter (com- 
pare Figures 137 with 138). 
Field Marks. This is the smallest of the Scoters. 
The solid blackness of the male, with yellow “Butter- 
bill", are very distinctive. Both sexes show silvery on 
the under surface of the primaries in flight, but females 
looking solid black in the distance or against the sky may 
not always be separable from the Surf Scoter in life. 
The absence of white wing patches will always separate 
this species and the Surf Scoter from the White-winged. 
Nesting. On the ground near water. 
Distribution. Across the continent, more common on the coasts than in the interior. 
Breeds in northeastern Asia and northwestern Alaska. Nesting in Canada but little known, 
recorded from the west snore of Hudson bay. 
Figure 137 
American Scoter; scale, J. 
Female Male 
165. White- winged Scoter (Including Dixon’s White- winged Scoter). Oidemia 
deglandi. L, 22. Plate XI B. 
Distinctions. Always easily recognizable in any plumage by the even black or dark 
coloration and the large white wing patch. 
Field Marks. In any plumage, a large, black, heavily-built Duck with pronounced 
white wing patches. 
Nesting. On the ground, under or among bushes, sometimes in the woods a long way 
from watei . 
Distribution. Across the continent. Breeding on the prairies northward. Though a 
common migrant and summering in large numbers off the coast we have no breeding 
records for British Columbia. 
SUBSPECIES. The White-winged Scoter of the Mackenzie and Alaska, probably 
inclusive of those of the west coast and perhaps of the prairie interior, has lately been 
separated as a subspecies, Dixon’s White-winged Scoter Oidemia deglandi dixoni. The 
points of differentiation are too fine and uncertain for popular recognition. 
