516 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
male Smew kept for some time in the ornamental 
waters in St. James’s Park, London, and Yarrell says 
that before the middle of July it regularly assumed 
the plumage of the female, reassuming its own 
plumage again at the autumn moult. The female 
differs exceedingly in plumage: there is a dull black 
mark between the beak and the eye; the rest of the 
head and back of the neck are reddish brown; the 
back is nearly black, each feather margined with 
lead-grey; the rump and upper tail-coverts are 
black, some of the feathers margined with lead-grey ; 
the lesser wing-coverts outside and at the point of 
the wing black, those inside white, making a large 
white patch on the wing; the greater coverts black, 
tipped with white; secondary quills the same, the 
two rows of tips making two white lines on the wing; 
primary quills black ; the chin and throat are white ; 
the breast is white, clouded (especially on the sides) 
with lead-grey, as are the hinder parts of the flanks ; 
the rest of the under parts are white. One of my 
specimens has some of the greater wing-coverts, and 
of the secondaries furthest from the body, mottled 
with reddish brown, as are some of the scapulars. 
As in the case of the Goldeneye, the difference of 
plumage of the old males from the young males and 
females has led to some confusion, the birds in this 
plumage being the “ Redheaded Smew” or “ Weesel 
Coot” and the “ Lough Diver” of Bewick. 
Yarrell says the eggs are of a uniform rich buff. 
