Queries and Answers. 767 



same colour, with precisely the same markings ;. whereas the 

 young male, though sometimes exactly coloured and marked 

 like the female, has very frequently wandering white feathers, 

 clearly indicating an approach to a change of plumage. I 

 have had repeated opportunities of examining the tracheas of 

 the young males, and have always found them to correspond 

 exactly with the mature bird, and resembling ^y^. 126. The 

 weight of this bird, according to Montagu, is four pounds. 

 Fig. 128. represents the trachea of Mergus serrator L. (the 

 red-breasted goosander), the females and young males are 

 also dun divers, but of a smaller size, weighing only about 

 two pounds ; but though only about half the size of ikfergus 

 Merganser, its trachea is nearly as large, and has but one 

 enlargement, whilst the labyrinth has two enlargements, 

 instead of one, as in iWergus Merganser. The female and 

 young are of a duller and heavier colour than Mergus Mer- 

 ganser, the wing spot is divided by a band, and the neck and 

 head are proportionally much smaller. This, I have no 

 doubt, is the bird of T. K., which he describes, and requests 

 the name of, in p. 397. Fig. 127. represents the trachea of 

 Mergus albellus L. (the smew). Rennie, in his edition of 

 Montagu, says, " This is by far the most plentiful species 

 that frequents our coasts, and fresh waters, &c., in the winter." 

 I have myself obtained more of the ikTergus Merganser than 

 of this species. I have never seen a young male of this spe- 

 cies marked exactly like the female : but I have had them very 

 nearly alike, and so near as fully to convince me that the 

 young males of all the three species undergo the same change 

 of plumage, from that of the female to the adult male ; and 

 that we have, in fact, only three species. The figures are all 

 much reduced. — Thomas Allis. Yorky 11th of the 6th month 

 (June), 1832. 



An English Work descriptive of the Ge?iera and Species of 

 British Insects, (p. 686.) — In answer to Tyro (p. 686.), I can 

 only say there is no such work at present published. There is 

 a slight chance (very slight, 1 hope) of such a work ; but no 

 man of honourable feehngs will think of buying it, should it 

 be allowed to appear. Professor Rennie has, as most of your 

 readers know, pirated the whole of Mr. Stephens's Haustellata, 

 as far as published, and appended thereto a bungling trans- 

 lation of the last parts of the Lepidoptera Britdnnica; but, 

 alas ! the sale of his Conspectus (a name chosen by the profes- 

 sor from his dislike of using Latin words) has been stopped by 

 an injunction from the Court of Chancery ; and the professor's 

 books will, I trust, rot on the bookseller's shelves.— jE. Double- 

 day. Epping, Sept. 29. 1832. 



