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Show 592 PROF, GIGLIOLI A N D C O U N T T. S A L V A D O R I O N [Dec. 6, justified in separating this bird from the European Velvet Scoter (CE. fusca), and we can hardly imagine how, when compared, the distinction between the two could have been overlooked. The difference lies principally in the bill, which in CE. deglandi is not only relatively shorter, because more covered by feathers at the base, but has a basal knob of a rounded shape which projects in fully adult males 0*014 m. above the nostrils and bulges out in front like that of C. olor. Beside, the black colour surrounds the base of the bill, the rest of which, with the exception of the unguis, is red not orange. In colour the adult males of both species are alike, but in CE. deglandi the white below the eye and on the wing is more extended. W e are happy to be able to confirm that the American Velvet Scoter inhabits also the Pacific coast of Eastern Asia, as well as Japan, whence H.R.H. Prince Thomas of Savoy sent specimens captured at Yamada in November 1880. The three specimens from Possiette Bay, are very interesting : a is fully adult, but has a frontal knob not quite so prominent as it is in two males from Yamada; b and c are young males in the act of assuming the black garb of the adult, both are in very dilapidated plumage, the old feathers being of a nearly uniform drab brownish grey. In b the lower back, wings, and tail are moulted ; in c the head is better clothed, but the body is in a miserable condition as to feathers, the remiges are quite undeveloped, so that it could certainly not fly. The case of this species is an interesting one and requires some further investigation; it would be desirable to clearly establish whether the Velvet Scoter found on the Atlantic coasts of North America is really identical with the Pacific bird1. 42. P H A L A C R O C O R A X C A R B O (Linn.). Phalacrocorax carbo, David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 532 (1877). a. Olga Bay, September 1879. b. Possiette Bay, October 1879. c. Gensan, August 16th, 1880. All are young birds in imperfect plumage ; specimen a shows the underparts very white. 43. LARUS RIDIBUNDUS, Linn. Chroicocephalus ridibundus, David et Oust. Ois. Chine n 520 (1877). ' F Larus ridibundus, Saund. P. Z. S. 1878, p. 200. a. Possiette Bay, October 1879. A fully adult bird in winter plumage. 44. LARUS CACHINNANS, Pall. Larus cachinnans, David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 519 (1879). a. Vladivostok, October 1879. 1 -SlI\Ce, ft-this p a P e r was sent to the Zoological Society of London, we have received Mr. Ridgway s 'Manual of Nortb-American Birds,' in which work the North-eastern Asiatic Scoter has been named (Eclemia stepiegeri. |
