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SCOTER

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 411 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCOTER , a word of doubtful origin, perhaps a variant of " See also:

Scout," one of the many See also:local names shared in See also:common by the See also:guillemot (q.v.) and the See also:razorbill (q.v.), or perhaps primarily connected with See also:coot (q.v.),' the See also:English name of the Anas See also:nigra of See also:Linnaeus, a See also:bird which with some allied See also:species has been justifiably placed in a distinct genus, Oedemia (often misspelt Oidemia)—a name coined in reference to the swollen See also:appearance of the See also:base of the See also:bill. The scoter is also very generally known around the See also:British coasts as the " See also:black See also:duck " from the male being, with the exception of a stripe of See also:orange that runs down the See also:ridge of the bill, wholly of that See also:colour. In the representative See also:American See also:form, Oe. americana, the protuberance at the base of the bill, black in the See also:European bird, is orange as well. Of all ducks the scoter has the most marine habits, keeping the See also:sea in all weathers, and rarely re-sorting to See also:land except for the purpose of breeding. Even in summer small flocks of scoters may generally be seen in the tideway at the mouth of any of the larger British See also:rivers or in See also:mid-channel, while in autumn and See also:winter these flocks are so increased as to number thousands of individuals, and the See also:water often looks black with them. A second species, the See also:velvet-duck, Oe. fusca, of much larger See also:size, distinguished by a See also:white spot under each See also:eye and a white See also:bar on each wing, is far less abundant than the former, but examples of it are occasionally to be seen in See also:company with the commoner one, and it too has its American counterpart, Oe. velvetina; while a third, only known as a straggler to See also:Europe, the surf-duck, Oe. perspicillata, with a white patch on the See also:crown and another on the nape, and a curiously particoloured bill, is a not uncommon bird in See also:North American See also:waters. All the species of Oedemia, like most other sea-ducks, have their true See also:home in See also:arctic or subarctic countries, but the scoter itself is said to breed occasionally in See also:Scotland (Zoologist, s.s. p. 1867). The See also:females display little of the deep See also:sable See also:hue that characterizes their partners, but are attired in See also:soot-colour, varied, especially beneath, with brownish white. The flesh of all these birds has an exceedingly strong See also:taste, and, after much controversy, was allowed by the authorities to See also:rank as See also:fish in the ecclesiastical See also:dietary (cf. Graindorge, Traite de l'origine See also:des macreuses, See also:Caen, 168o; and See also:Correspondence of See also:John See also:Ray, Ray See also:Soc. ed., p. 148).

(A.

End of Article: SCOTER

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SCOTIA (Gr. o'Karca, shadow or darkness)

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