Gould marvelled at the black colouring of these northern scoters 'what can form a greater contrast than their jetty-black colour with the masses of snow and floating ice-mountains of the part of the ocean they breed?'

Two males are depicted, and a female in dark brown plumage.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds north Eurasia, eastern Siberia, northwest Alaska, and locally in central and eastern Canada. Winters south to Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, and to east China, Japan, and coasts of North America to Baja California, Gulf coast and Florida