312 INDIAN DUCKS 



I can find uothmg i'lu'ther re this bird being obtained in India, 

 beyond the fact that in the British Museum Catalogue there are 

 three birds, " J ? ad, et 3' juv. sk.." obtained by Falconer in 

 Bengal. As Gates remarks, there is no reason why it should not 

 be obtained in Northern Burma, as it extends further east and 

 south in China. 



Even in Northern India it can nowhere be called a commou 

 bird, though there are some places to which it resorts with 

 comparative regularity, though never, it would seem, in large 

 numbers. In Bengal it is nowhere anything but a straggler, and 

 Cuttack would appear to be its extreme limit in the south. 



Nidification. — As regards the breeding of the Smew, there is not 

 very much on record, and what little has been recorded by various 

 authors is with reference to eggs got from other people. 



Weire says he took what he believed to be eggs of this species 

 near Griefswald in Germany, but there was little by which he could 

 identify them beyond the size and colour of the eggs, and the fact 

 that they were taken from a hollow tree. He did not obtain or see 

 the parents, and though he was very likely right in his identification, 

 the eggs cannot be accepted as authentic without doubt. 



Mr. J. Wolley, in the 'Ibis' for 1859, pp. 09-76, described at 

 considerable length how he obtained eggs of the Smew, through a 

 certain Carl Leppajervi, from Sodankyla. After trying for a long 

 time to obtain eggs, without the slightest success, he received a 

 small wooden box addressed " To the English Gentleman Joh Woleg 

 in Muoniovaara." In this box, amongst other things, there was the 

 head of a female Smew and three eggs, part of a clutch of seven. 

 These three eggs were described by Wolley as follows : — 



" On comparing them with a series of something like fifty 

 Wigeon's eggs, 1 found they were pretty nearly of the same size, 

 though rather below the average. They were flattened at the small 

 end more than any of the Wigeon's, and they had less of the yellow 

 tinge about them, so that persons not much used to eggs could pick 

 them out of the lot ; Ijut all these peculiarities miglit be accidental, 

 though it seemed remarkable that any woodsman trying to pass off 

 Wigeon's eggs for Smew's should liave been able to find so abnormal 

 a nest. But it was not very long before 1 satisfied myself that there 

 was a decided dill'crtnce of texture. This could be perceived on an 

 ordinary examination ; Ijut it became \ery striking on exposing the 



