500 ANATIDvE. 



inland waters in winter, the adult males being very rare in 

 proportion to the females and young of the year, a few of 

 which are obtainable every year in the Dublin market. 



The range of the Smew does not extend far to the north- 

 west, and it is unrecorded from the Fseroes, Iceland, or 

 Greenland. Even in winter, it is rare on the west and 

 south-west coast of Norway and in the south of Sweden ; 

 Finnish -Lapland, whence the late Mr. Wolley obtained the 

 first authenticated eggs on record, being, probably, about the 

 western limit of its breeding-range. Its winter migrations, 

 dependent upon the weather, extend along the northern 

 coasts from the Baltic to the west of France, and down the 

 Atlantic to Morocco ; the large inland lakes of Switzerland 

 attract a tolerable number of birds ; and a line of migration 

 appears to pass down the Rhone valley to the Mediterranean, 

 for the species is not unfrequent in some winters in the south 

 of France and in the east and south-east of Spain, although 

 very rare in Algeria. It is not an uncommon visitor to 

 Italy and her islands, although very rare in Malta, where, 

 however, Mr. C. A. Wright records the occurrence of an 

 adult male in the winter of 18G8. In the eastern part of 

 the Mediterranean, especially in the Grecian Archipelago, as 

 well as in the Black Sea, the Smew appears to be the 

 commonest species of the genus. This is to be accounted 

 for by the fact that, not only does it breed in the northern 

 districts of Russia like its congeners, but it also nests in 

 suitable localities in the valley of the Volga and along the 

 whole line of the Ural Mountains. In Asia its southern 

 breeding limits cannot yet be defined, but the species is 

 found across the entire continent, visiting Japan, China, and 

 the northern portions of India during the cold season. The 

 range of this species appears to be confined to the Palearctic 

 region, for reliance cannot be placed upon Audubon's state- 

 ment that he had obtained a solitary female in 1817 on Lake 

 Barataria — suggestive name — near New Orleans ; no subse- 

 quent observer having found a trace of this bird in any part 

 of America. 



As already mentioned, the late Mr. Wolley was the first 



