VELVET SCOTER. 
419 
NAT A TORES. 
AN ATI DAE. 
VELVET SCOTER. 
OlDEMIA FUSCA. 
PLATE CXVI. FIG. II. 
Mr. Audubon, from whose work I extract the follow¬ 
ing particulars relative to this species, is the only ornitho¬ 
logist who has had an opportunity of observing its habits 
during the breeding-season, who has given any account of 
his observations. 
“During the breeding-season, the Velvet Duck resembles 
the eider in his habits, only that it prefers fresh water, 
which is rarely the case with the other species. Those 
which breed at Labrador begin to form their nests from 
the 1st to the 10th of June, and on the 28th of July I 
caught some young ones several days old. The nests are 
placed within a few feet of the borders of small lakes, a 
mile or two distant from the sea, and usually under the 
low boughs of the bushes, of the twigs of which, with 
mosses and various plants matted together, they are formed; 
they are large and almost flat, several inches thick, with 
some feathers of the female, but no down under the eggs, 
which are usually six in number/' 
Mr. Danri, a correspondent of Mr. YarrelTs, says that 
“this duck is common during the summer months in 
the interior of the whole of Scandinavia, north of lati¬ 
tude sixty degrees. It frequents and breeds on the large 
