476 SMEW. 



and Central Europe prove attractive to a tolerable number, and 

 many pass down the Rhone valley to the Mediterranean, where the 

 bird is generally distributed in winter. Its western breeding-limit 

 appears to be in Finnish Lapland, and there Wolley obtained the 

 first authenticated eggs on record ; it also nests in Northern Russia 

 and for a considerable distance southward along the Ural ]Moun- 

 tains ; while lines of migration run down to the ^'f^gean, the Black 

 Sea, and the Caspian. In summer the Smew is found across 

 Siberia up to the limit of forest-growth, and in cold weather it visits 

 Japan, China, and Northern India. An ancient specimen in the 

 British Museum is said to have come from " North America." 



It was only after four years of arduous research, and persistent 

 inquiry respecting the breeding habits of the " Uinilo," as the Finns 

 call the Smew, that Wolley succeeded in obtaining three eggs, which, 

 with the female bird, had been taken from a hollow in an old rotten 

 birch-stump, on June 8th 1857 ; while four more belonging to the 

 same clutch were afterwards sent to him. In 1S75 Messrs. Harvie- 

 Brown and Seebohm had four eggs brought to them at Habariki on 

 the Petchora, a little south of the Arctic circle, and they afterwards 

 procured from the nest some of the down, which is white. The 

 eggs are cream-coloured, like those of the Wigeon, but they have a 

 close-grained surface, and are much heavier, though slightly smaller : 

 measurements 2 in. by i"45 in. The food consists of fish, crus- 

 taceans &c. The Smew, like the rest of the genus, is an excellent 

 diver, but it walks with difficulty, owing to the backward position of 

 its legs. 



The adult male in spring has the short bill slate-blue, with a white 

 nail ; irides reddish ; round each eye a black patch ; forehead, 

 crown and elongated crest satin-white, the latter set off by a 

 triangular patch of greenish-black ; throat, neck, and under parts 

 white ; back black, with a crescentic mottled band of the same 

 colour stretching over each side of the shoulders and another in 

 front of each wing ; scapulars white, margined with black ; lesser 

 wing-coverts white ; greater coverts black, with two narrow white 

 bars ; quills and tail-feathers blackish-brown ; flanks finely vermicu- 

 lated with grey; legs and toes lead-colour. In June the female 

 plumage is assumed and is retained until the autumn. Length 

 17*5 in. ; wing 7-6 in. The hen-bird is much smaller; she has a 

 black patch on the lores (not assumed till the second moult) ; head 

 reddish-brown, with a nuchal stripe and collar of ash-grey ; upper 

 parts much as in the male ; under parts pure white. In the young 

 the upper surface is mottled with grey. 



