108 
ANSERIFORMES 
163. American Scoter, black sea coot, butter-nosed scoter, la macreuse a 
bec jaune. Oidemia americana. 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. 
Distinctions. The solid black plumage of the male, unrelieved by any colour, and the 
yellow bill enlargement are very distinctive. The female resembles the female Surf Scoter 
very closely. The light colour on the face is more 
evenly distributed and not broken into patches as 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 Figure 160 with 159). 
Field Marks. This is the smallest of the scoters. 
The solid blackness of the male, and 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. Rare or absent from the interior. Breeds in 
northeastern Asia and northwestern Alaska. Nesting in Canada but little known. 
Figure 160 
American Scoter; scale, 
Female Male 
167. Ruddy Duck, le canard roux. Erismatura jamaicensis. L, 15. A rather 
small duck. Breeding male: rufous-chestnut on flanks, back, and neck. Below, white 
with a peculiar grebe-like, silvery sheen vaguely crossbarred with brown that becomes 
more pronounced on the breast. The crown is covered with a black cap and the face 
and chin are pure white. The bill is a bright sky blue. The bill colour fades after 
breeding season, but the vestiges of the ruddy breast persist through the autumn. The 
Figure 101 
Ruddy Duck; scale, J. 
Female Male 
Figure 162 
Bill of Ruddy Duck; 
natural size. 
female is a brownish bird, lighter below, with the same silvery sheen as the male. The 
cap is brown anti the face with a vague light spot broken by a faint dark streak from the 
gape back over the ears. 
Distinctions. The red male with contrasting black and white head is very distinctive. 
The female is in plain browns without sharply characterized markings anywhere. She 
closely resembles the female Buffle-head, but has no white wing spot, is not as white 
below, and the face mark is less distinct and of different pattern (See Figure 150, page 
100). She has an even closer resemblance to the female Harlequin, but with different 
face pattern (See Plate XI A), and the back has a very fine pepper-and-salt, or semi- 
vermiculated, effect, with minute specks of rufous and ochre. The Ruddy can be separ- 
ated in all plumages from any other duck by the distinctively dense plumage below, with 
its grebe-like sheen, the tail of stiff, spike-like feathers, and the broad, short bill with 
peculiar hook to the nail (Figure 163). 
