808 
U. S. P. R R. EXP. AND SURVEYS—ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When collected. 
Whence obtained. 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
2722 
904 
4574 
$ 
2 
Atlantic coast, U. S_ 
S. F. Baird. 
Potomac river, D. C _ 
Dec. —,1842 
_do___ 
19. 00 
21. 50 
33.00 
36. 25 
9.00 
9.75 
Fort Steilacoom, W. T_ 
Dr. Suckley __ 
OIDEMIA (PELIONETTA) BIMACULATA, Baird. 
Huron Scoter. 
Fuligula bimaculata , Herbert, Field Sports U. S. 2d ed. II, 1848, 366. With wood-cut figure. 
Sp. Ch. —Bill shorter than the head. Nostrils nearer to the tip than to the angle of the mandibles by nearly one-fifth. 
Feathers advancing on the top of the bill for about one-third its length. 
Bill bluish black; iris brown; legs and feet dusky crimson. General color sooty black. Forehead, encroaching on the upper 
mandible, dull brownish black ; chin, throat, and upper breast, dark cinereous gray. Belly and vent lighter than the breast, and 
more silvery. Under tail coverts and beneath the tail dark dingy gray. Under wing coverts dark cinereous gray. Secondaries 
snowy white. A dingy white patch anterior to the eye, and occupying the whole insertion of the upper mandible from the front 
downwards. Posterior and slightly inferior to the eye is a larger and brighter white spot, of an elongated and acute oval form 
running towards the nape. Female generally similar, but more dingy ; more silvery gray beneath. Legs and feet dusky orange. 
Size less. 
Length, 18.50; bill along gape, 2.20; from extremity of front to tip, 1.50; w’ing, 10.50; extent, 24.50; tarsus, 1.60; middle and 
outer toe, 2.90; inner toe, 2.50 ; weight, 2J pounds. 
Bab .—Lake Huron and adjacent waters in fall and winter. 
In the preceding description, condensed from the original account by Herbert, (Frank 
Forester,) will be found a notice of a scoter, supposed by him to be new. If the bird described 
were really an adult, there can be no question as to it being a fifth species of American Oidemia. 
The shape of bill is like that of Pelionetta perspieillata, but differs in being black throughout 
instead of red. The colors of body are more those of Melanetta velvetina, in the white seconda¬ 
ries, and white patch behind the eye, and in the absence of the white patches on top of head 
and on the nape of P. perspieillata. 
The only reason to suspect immaturity is on account of the absence of the continuous and 
velvet black color all over the body, except where relieved by white, so characteristic of all 
adult males of the genus Oidemia. Still this would not explain the combination of the bill of 
Pelionetta with the colors of Melanetta , the former never having white secondaries. A hybrid 
between the two might possibly account for this union, but in the large number of specimens 
referred to by Herbert this is not likely to have been the case. 
SOMATERIA, Leach. 
Somateria, Leach, in Fleming’s Philos. Zool. 1822. Type Anas mollissima, L. 
Ch. —Bill much compressed, tapering to the tip ; the nail enormously large, and forming the terminal portion of the bill, and 
much decurved. The feathers of forehead advancing forward in an acute long point, separating on each side a frontal extension 
or linear process, or the feathers of the cheek may be said to extend a considerable distance along the commissural edge of the 
bill. Nostrils situated anterior to the middle of the commissure. Tail rather pointed, but short; of 14 feathers. 
