82 BULLETIN 12G, UlSTITED STATICS XATION'AL MUSKUM, 



Plumagefi. — Dresser's description of the downy young, as given by 

 Millais (1013), is as follows: 



Upper parts, includin? the sides of the head below tlie eye. but only the back of 

 the neck, dark blackish brown, darkest on the crown and the lower part of the back: 

 at the base of the wing joint a white spot, and another close to it, but rather lower 

 down the back, and on each side of the rump another wdiite spot; below the eye a 

 very small white spot; under parts white; breast and flanks pale grayish or sooty 

 brown. One young bird, which can only be 2 or 3 days old, has the bill so slightly 

 serrated that the serrations can only be seen when very closely looked into; but 

 another, which is a few days older, has the serrations very distinct. 



The sequence of plumages to maturity is thus outlined by Millais 

 (1913): 



The young male in first plumage very closely resembles tlie adult female and 

 young female, and until December it is very difficult to tell the sexes apart except 

 by dissection. At the end of five months, however, the young male begins to turn 

 much darker. The nape is now often changed to new black feathers and the upper 

 wing has a larger area of white; the lores, too, show many dark feathers. The tail is 

 often complete by December. So the advent of the male plumage continues to ad- 

 vance on the upper parts until April when the usual halt takes place, until an eclipse 

 plumage closely resembling that of the adult male is assumed. The wings, which 

 are always the key to identification, are not the same as the adult male, and always 

 have more or less brown or blackish edges on the upper coverts instead of being tlie 

 pure white of tlie adult male. The immature male passes through the same stages as 

 the other mergansers and assumes its first complete pliunage in late November — that 

 is, at 17 months. 



The same writer describes the molts and plumages of the adult as 

 follows : 



The adult male assumes its eclipse plumage in June. As Naumann points out, 

 it closely resembles that of the adult female, though I fancy that the bird from which 

 his description was taken was not yet in full eclipse, as it differs somewhat from those 

 I have seen. 



In July the adult male has gained a very rich red-brown crest, somewhat fuller 

 than the female, and it can always be distinguished from the female by the rich color- 

 ing of the wing, the white irides, and the black patch round the front of the eyes; 

 also by its larger size black edges to outer white scapulars, and a few vermiculated 

 feathers above the thighs on the flanks. In other respects the whole of the rest of the 

 plumage is like the adult female, except the mantle, which is nearly black. Wings 

 as in winter. The autumn molt proceeds in the usual manner, and the adult male 

 regains its winter plumage by the end of November. Sometimes a few eclipse plum- 

 age feathers remain in the plumage until the new year, but this is unusual. 



Food. — The food of the smew consists chiefly of small fish, crusta- 

 ceans, small frogs, water insects, mollusks, and sand eels, which it ob- 

 tains by diving. Tt is an expert diver and exceedingly swift in its 

 pursuit of fish. Naumann, as quoted by Millais (1913), gives a 

 pleasing account of a flock of smews fishing in a river full of ice: 



To watch a flock of smews at tlieir fishing unseen affords a pleasant amusement. 

 At one moment all are swimming together, and then in a flash all have vanished 

 from the surface, the water is stirred by their paddling in it, and finally one after 



