Melanitta americana
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
Subfamily Anatinae
Other names: American Scoter, Butter-billed Coot, Black Coot, Sea Coot
♂ Adult male.— Entire plumage black; bill black, bright orange at the base, which is much swollen; legs and feet brownish-black.
♀ Adult female.— Top of head dark brown; throat and fore neck grayish; rest of plumage sooty-brown, lighter below; bill black; legs and feet brown.
The American Scoter is the least common of the three Scoters; it is also the smallest. In its habits it resembles its relatives; all three are often associated on the same feeding-grounds, but generally keep in distinct flocks. The adult male American Scoter may be distinguished from any other duck by its uniform black plumage, and its habit of diving. The Black Duck, which in winter may be found with the Scoters, does not dive; moreover, the Black Duck may generally be distinguished by the whitish under surface of its wings. An adult male American Scoter has an orange spot at the base of its black bill. (See under Surf Scoter)
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)
♂ Male.- General plumage black, the under parts somewhat brownish; bill black, with large patch of orange or yellow on upper mandible; legs and feet black. Length about 20 inches.
♀ Female.- Smaller than the male; plumage dusky brown, more or less mixed with white on under parts.
Nest.- On a sea-side cliff or moorland bluff near a lake,—made of coarse herbage and lined with down.
Eggs.- 6-10; buff of various shades; 2.55 x 1.80.
This species, probably confounded with the Common Scoter [Melanitta nigra, European bird similar to the Black Scoter], is said to inhabit the shores of Hudson Bay, breeding between the 50th and 60th parallels, but does not appear to frequent the interior. It lives and feeds principally at sea, and its flesh is rank and oily. The American Scoters visit the coasts and bays of Massachusetts and New York in considerable numbers, associating with the Surf, Velvet, Eider, and other Sea Ducks, and are brought occasionally to Boston market about the first week in November. While here they appear to feed principally on shell-fish, particularly mussels, and the flesh of the young is tolerably palatable.
[Annotation by M. Chamberlain]
The American Scoter is not so strictly a sea-bird as Nuttall supposed, for though common on the coast it is found also on all the larger inland waters. In the A. O. U. “Check List “this bird’s distribution is given as follows: “Coasts and larger inland waters of northern North America: breeds in Labrador and the northern interior: south in winter to New Jersey, the Great Lakes, Colorado, and California.”
In October. 1878, I shot a male near the head waters of the Restigouche river, in the center of New Brunswick.
In habits this species does not differ materially from its allies.
Game and Waterbirds (A Popular Handbook of the Ornithology of Eastern North America) by Thomas Nuttall, annotated by Montague Chamberlain, 1896