SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 467 



lesser wing coverts, quills and tail, blackish-brown. Sides of the 

 head, neck, bars on the shoulders, scapulars, tertiaries, and bases of 

 the secondaries and greater coverts, greenish-black. Broad bar from, 

 behind the eye through the middle of the crest, alternate bars on the 

 shoulder, tips of the greater coverts, exterior borders of the secon- 

 daries, central stripes on the tertiaries, and under plumage, white. 

 Flanks finely undulated with yellowish-brown and black. Crest on 

 the crown and nape long. Wings 2.^ inches shorter than the tail. 

 Bill blackish-red. Tail pointed, consisting of 20 feathers. Legs and 

 feet flesh colored, the claws large and stout. The trachea is fur- 

 nished with a small labyrinth. 



In the young the upper plumage is browner ; and the white spec- 

 ulum and stripes on the tertiaries less perfect than in the adult. No 

 black and white bars on the shoulder, nor white band behind the eye. 

 The head, neck, and upper parts of the breast, soiled pale brown, 

 with white edgings on the breast. Chin whitish. Bill black, orange 

 beneath. The crest scarcely visible. 



THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 



(Mergus alhellus, Linn. Lath. Ind. 2. sp. 6. Wilson, viii. p. 126. 

 pi. 71. fig. 4. [male.] Bonap. Synops. No. 350. Temm. Man. 

 d^Orn. ii. p. 887. The Smew, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 261. No. 

 468. Le Petit Harle Huppe, ou La Piette, Buff. Ois. viii. p. 275. 

 Ib. pi. Enlum. 449. Ib. La Piette femeUe,Fl. Enlum. 450. Mergus 

 minutus, Linn. Faun. Suec. No. 133. [female]. Lath. Ind. sp. 7. 

 M. asiaticus, S. G. Gmel. Reis. ii. p. 188. t. 20. [ibid.] M. stel- 

 latus, Brunn. Orn. Boreal. No. 98. M. pannonicus, Scopoli. 

 Ann. 1. No. 92. Phil. Museum, No. 2944. [an European spe- 

 cimen !]) 



Sp. Charact. — Speculum black, crossed with white : bill and feet 

 bluish. — Male white, varied with black; the crown white. 

 Female cinereous, beneath white ; crown reddish-brown. 



As a native of America this appears to be a very doubt- 

 ful species. Pennant gives it on the authority of a specimen 

 sent to Mrs. Blackburn (of Orford in Lancashire) from 



