LIFE IMSTOlilKS OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL, 38 



another appears oJi the top again, but scattered, and where there is room, often HO to 

 i)0 paces from the original place; they assemble again, dive yet again, and to the sur- 

 prise of the observer they appear this time perhaps quite close to him on the surface. 

 It is very wonderful how Ihey obtain their means of food only by diving often from 

 such small opening in the ice of only a few square feet; and thoy conduct their fish 

 chase then under the ice roof, but they always come up again to the open places to 

 breathe and rest lor a few moments; and tliis is a proof that their sight under water 

 must reach to a considerable distance. In places where the open water does not 

 contain enough fish, or they have themselves caught or scared away a fish, they scour 

 the bottom for insects or frogs taking their winter sleep in the mud, or for fish which 

 liave taken refuge and hidden there. 



Beliavior. — Millais (1913) says of the flight, swimming, and diving 

 habits of the smew : 



The flight is \ ery rapid, and the neck held very still ynd straight. When going at 

 full speed they swing from side to side, and often shoot down suddenly close to water. 

 On alightiTig on the water they often dive at once as a precautionary measure and on 

 rising to the surface stop, preen, and bathe. Like the other mergansers, tliey are 

 constantly preeTiing their feathers, whether on land or on the water. In winter they 

 seldom come ashore, but in simimer they often emerge from the water and lie for 

 hours asleep amongst the stones or on some sand spit or island. Hennicke observed a 

 flock of smews in Finland, in September, I90U, resting on tree trunks in the middle 

 or the rapids of the Ulea River. 



The swimming attitudes are the same as the red-breaated merganser, and they 

 only "sink" the body in the water when alarmed. When on feed they swim 

 lower, and the tail tiails, or is sometimes a little lower than the line of the water. 



Tiiey dive with swiftness, and apparently more vertically than the other mergan- 

 sers — this may be due to their feetling on slower-moving fish — but they do not seem 

 to range over the same extent of ground as the larger species. I have, however, seen 

 a smew making long horizontal dives like a red-breasted merganser, and in this in- 

 stance it was probably hunting for food or in pursuit of trout. Certiunly the few 

 smews I have seen on feed did not change their ground much, but came up again 

 near to the spot they had dived, and it may be true, as some authors have asserted, 

 tha», this is their general habit. I do not ^hink that any of the mergansers use their 

 wings under water as the eiders do. They all seem capable of swimming distances 

 under water without coming to the surface to breathe. If the flock htis separated, it 

 soon swims together again before again diving. 



Of the voice he says: "Smews very seklom make any cry, antl in 

 the winter only a harsh croaking note,'' 



Winter. — Hie smew migrates to its winter home in southern Europe 

 rather late in the fall, from the middle of October to the end of No- 

 vember, v/herc it fref[nents the lakes and rivers until it is driven by 

 the formation of ice in its favorite resorts to the estuaries, bays, and 

 even the open seas, where it associates, on very intimate terms, with 

 the golden eye. It is at all times shy and difficult to approach. 



Naumann, as quoted by Millais (1913), speaks of its haunts, as 

 follows : 



Tlie smew does not seem to like the open sea, and it is seen almost always near 

 land, in summer in deep narrow gulfs running far inland, in estuaries, or in land lakes 

 near and on other pieces of open water, less often on salt than on fresh. With us in 



