VELVET DUCK. 
213 
fishy flavour, having’ been exempted from the interdict, 
on the supposition of their being cold blooded, and 
partaking of the nature of fish. * 
The scoter abounds in Lapland, Norway, Sweden, 
Russia, and Siberia. It was also found by Osbeck, 
between the islands of Java and St Paul, lat. 30 and 
34, in the month of June.')' 
This species is twenty-one inches in length, and 
thirty-four in extent, and is easily distinguished from 
all other ducks by the peculiar form of its bill, which 
has at the base a large elevated knob, of a red colour, 
divided by a narrow line of yellow, which spreads over 
the middle of the upper mandible, reaching nearly to 
its extremity, the edges and lower mandible are black ; 
the eyelid is yellow ; irides, dark hazel ; the whole 
plumage is black, inclining to purple on the head and 
neck ; legs and feet, reddish. 
The female has little or nothing of the knob on the 
bill ; her plumage, above, a sooty brown, and below of a 
grayish white. 
270. ANAS FUSC Ay LINNAEUS AND WILSON. VELVET DUCK. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXIX. FIG. III. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This and the preceding are frequently confounded 
together as one and the same species by our gunners 
on the sea coast. The former, however, differs in being 
of greater size ; in having a broad band of white across 
the wing ; a spot of the same under the eye ; and in the 
structure of its bill. The habits of both are very much 
alike ; they visit us only during the winter ; feed entirely 
on shell fish, which they procure by diving ; and return 
to the northern regions early in spring to breed. They 
often associate with the scoters, and are taken frequently 
in the same nets with them. Owing to the rank, fishy 
flavour of its flesh, it is seldom sought after by our 
sportsmen or gunners, and is very little esteemed. 
* Bewick. 
f Voyage , i. p. 120. 
