See text Oidemia The scoters are stocky seaducks in the genus Melanitta.

Their lined nests are built on the ground close to the sea, lakes or rivers, in woodland or tundra.

The genus Melanitta was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822.

[1] The type species was designated in 1838 as the velvet scoter by Thomas Campbell Eyton.

[5] The presumed fossil "scoter" Melanitta ceruttii, which lived in California during the Late Pliocene, is now placed in the genus Histrionicus.