The trachea of the male Velvet Scoter is remarkable for
a hollow bony enlargement situated about two-thirds down
the tube, made up of expanded tracheal rings, which in the
adult are firmly ossified together. Upon each side of this
enlargement a small muscle passing downwards is inserted
upon the inner side of the shaft of the merrythought. On
making a longitudinal lateral section, as shown in the outside
figures below, the inner tube of the trachea, at its upper
part, exhibits an aperture on each side by which it communicates
freely with the cavity within another bony enlargement
situated immediately below the superior larynx, and brings
to mind the laryngeal cavities found in some of the higher
animals. A slip of paper is represented as passing through
both apertures.
A NfiERES. AN AT ID JF..
(E demia perspicillata (Linnaeus*).
THE SURF SCOTER.
Oidemia perspicillata.
The Surf Scoter is a North American species which
has been obtained, as a straggler, a good many times on the
shores of our islands ; and it is probable that its occurrences,
especially on the western side, are not so rare as was formerly
supposed. The earliest mention appears to be by the late
Mr. Blyth, who wrote in 1888, in Neville Wood’s ‘Naturalist’
(vol. iii. p. 420), that “ a few seasons ago Mr. Bartlett
received a recent Surf Scoter for the purpose of stuffing ” ;
and from that specimen the Author derived the measurements
here given and some further particulars. Mr. William
Thompson of Weymouth informed the Author that a
* Anas perspicillata, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 201 (1766).
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