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![American Scoter Duck [Havell] Pl. 408](/pictures/04352-1.jpg)
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AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)
American Scoter Duck [Black Scoter] [Pl. 408]
[Pl. 408]. Hand-coloured engraving with aquatint and etching by R. Havell, 1838, paper watermarked "J. Whatman/1837". Sheet size: 25 3/8 x 37 7/8 inches.
From the first edition of "The Birds of America."
Audubon here pictures a breeding pair during the winter, in a coastal lagoon perhaps, the orange patch on the male's bill muted when compared to its spring colours. The urgency of the earlier season laid aside, they paddle companionably on the brackish waters, the male's feet visible but slightly magnified by the refraction of the water.
"On the 11th of July, 1833, a nest of this bird was found by my young companions in Labrador...I afterwards found a female with seven young ones, of which she took such effectual care that none of them fell into our hands. On several occasions, when they were fatigued by diving, she received them all on her back, and swimming deeply, though very fast, took them to the shore, where the little things lay close among the tall grass and low tangled bushes...This bird usually flies low over the water, although the flight is swift and well sustained. On land it moves more awkwardly than the Eider Duck, but in diving it is perhaps superior to that species. During their stay along our shores, they congregate in vast multitudes...It sometimes happens that during violent gales the Scoter is forced into fresh water rivers, from which, however, it returns to the salt bays, inlets, or outer sandy shallows of the coast, as soon as the weather permits. They are extremely abundant about Boston, New York, and New Jersey shores, and the Chesapeake; but less so to the southwards, until you reach the salt lakes about New Orleans" (J. J. Audubon, The Birds of America, New York & Philadelphia: 1840-1844, vol. VII, pp.54-55). All three Scoter species were once known as "coots," and "this species, solid black with a bright yellow or orange swelling on its beak was known as the "butternose coot...It has a curiously disjunct breeding range in North America, nesting in Alaska and locally in northeastern Canada, but seemingly not in between. However, there are tens of thousands of lakes across northern Canada that have not been scrutinized...The black scoter is better known in winter when it resorts to the coasts -- on the Pacific side from Alaska to Oregon and on the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Carolinas and, rarely, the Gulf states" (R. T. & V. M. Peterson, Audubon's Birds of America, London: 1981, no. 81).
Susanne M. Low, A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America, New Haven & New York: 2002, p.210.
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#4352 $9,500.00 
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