MEKGUS ALBELLUS 315 



probably none can excel them. Hume gives them the i-eputatiou of 

 being even better divers than grebes and cormorants, and as be 

 watched them diving after fish, and again when diving in clear water 

 after being slightly wounded, he ought to know. Few of us have 

 been as fortunate as- Hume in this respect, but many people have 

 doubtless seen the cormorants and snake-birds being fed at the Zoo 

 and other places, so that we can appreciate what a compliment 

 Hume pays the 8mew when he declares it to be smarter even than 

 these. 



It swims very fast indeed, and generall}" seeks escape by swim- 

 ming and diving rather than by flight, and as it is a very wide-awake 

 and extremely shy bird, it is no easy matter to get within shot. On 

 foot, except perhaps rarely when Smews are found on rivers, it is 

 almost impossible to get a shot, as they always keep well away from 

 the shores and from vegetation, so that the sportsman has but few 

 opportunities for stalking them. Hume, however, tells us that they 

 may sometimes be approached in a boat by sailing past at a distance 

 of about forty yards ; in an ordinary native boat it is no use attempt- 

 ing to circumvent the Smew, for he can swim and dive almost as 

 fast as, if not faster than, the boat can travel. 



Like the genera Phalacrocorax and Aiiliinga, it seems that the 

 Smew makes use of its wings to assist it in diving, and, like these 

 birds, it can swim at will with only its head and neck out of water, 

 though normally it swims with its whole upper part out. 



Its food is practically entirely animal, and consists of Crustacea, 

 molluscs, water-insects, larva?, small fishes, &c. The Smew itself 

 is quite unfit for food ; even Mr. Finn, who considers that my 

 remarks on the edible qualities of many ducks are rather unflattering, 

 only remarks of this bird, " the flesh is said to be very bad indeed, 

 it being, according to Pallas, piscuhntissimu,'' 



Mr. Finn also notes (' Asian ') : — 



"It ... . gets about nimbly enough on land, where, however, 

 it seems to be very rarely seen in a wild state. I judge from captives 

 in the London Zoo." 



Other authors have given it a very bad reputation for walking 

 powers; but it is noticeable that most ducks have been very much 

 underrated in this respect, and Mr. Finn has set right a goodly 

 number of antiquated mistakes on this subject. 



