398 The Female Smew. 



Chrysosplenium altemifolium be much subject to variation, 

 and if it be frequently met with in the state figured in ' Eng- 

 lish Botany/—*?. Luxford.— London, May 3rd, 1838.* 



Plumage of the Smew. — A correspondent in your last num- 

 ber, in his remarks on the smew, expresses a doubt respect- 

 ing the female of that bird possessing the black mark round 

 the eye, and supposes the birds so marked, to be young males; 

 from my own observation I am able to say, that young males 

 obtain this mark, some time previously to their assuming the 

 adult garb. I can with confidence assure you, that the adult 

 females also possess this mark. During the past winter, I 

 collected upwards of twenty smews, and I can safely say that 

 I have examined four times that number, the greater part of 

 which were young birds ; out of the twenty collected by me, 

 nine were adult males, and four adult females. That the sex 

 of these birds, as well as of the other species of Merganser 

 common to this country, is easily ascertained without dissec- 

 tion, will be admitted by all who are aware of the different 

 forms of the trachea or windpipe. On passing the thumb and 

 finger along the throat of the male birds, a considerable en- 

 largement will be felt about the centre ; but in the females, 

 the trachea is simple throughout. Notwithstanding this, I 

 invariably dissect all the specimens I obtain, and in every in- 

 stance have found the above statement to be correct. I have 

 now before me two females, possessing the black mark ; in 

 one it is much more distinct than in the other. That which 

 is the most distinctly marked is the oldest bird ; the tip of 

 the bill being much more hooked, and the crest feathers of a 

 darker colour, and much longer ; the white markings on the 

 throat and wings are also more distinct, and the back darker. 

 — A. D. Bartlett.—±1, Museum Street, June 20th, 1838. 



* Since writing the above, 1 have met with the following passage in an 

 interesting article on the Natural History of Lexden [near Colchester] and 

 its neighbourhood; signed J. G. 'Magazine of Natural History,' Vol. vii., 

 p. 18. The description would almost serve for the locality at Littleton.— 

 " The boggy ground, in which the springs have their rise, is covered with 

 alders, and produces much that is interesting to the botanist. The rasp- 

 berry, (Rubus idceus), abounds in it, and, when the fruit is ripe, presents a 

 temptation to venture on the soft and treacherous soil. In spring, the bril- 

 liant Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, with its yellow flowers and shining fo- 

 liage, forms large beds of green and gold ; the lowly wood-sorrel, (Oxalis 

 Acetosella), hangs its pale and modest head beneath the stumps of the de- 

 cayed alders ; " &c. 



