SMEW. 637 



It uses its wings under water like a Guillemot, darting after a fish with a 

 speed that is almost ineredible, and flaiDping gently to pick up a moUusk at 

 the bottom, as if it was equally at home on or under the surfaee. It is one 

 of the shyest of Ducks, and swims or dives rapidly from danger ; but if 

 forced to take wing it soon escapes with rapid and noiseless flight. Its 

 note is a harsh kr, kr. Its food consists of small fish and water-insects of 

 various kinds, but it is not known to eat any kind of aquatic vegetation. 



The Smew is probably a somewhat early breeder, and eggs have been 

 obtained in the Arctic regions from the first to the last week of July. 



The eggs of the Smew were discovered by Wolley in Russian Lapland 

 nearly thirty years ago. His account of the difficulties he met with, which 

 were not finally overcome until he had been four years at Avork {' Ibis,^ 

 1859, p. G9), is a model of patient research. It records the identification 

 of the species from the description of the natives, who informed him that 

 it bred in hollow trees, or in the boxes placed for the use of the Golden- 

 eye, and that its eggs were something like those of a bantam ; it further 

 records his anticipations that they would prove to be like those of the 

 Wigeon, perhaps whiter : but year after year passes by without any further 

 light being thrown on the subject, until on the 30th of July, 1857, in 

 Munioniska, he receives a box, sent from a distant village by one of his trusty 

 Finnish friends, the assistant schoolmaster of the place. The box contains 

 the skin of a female Smew caught on the nest, and three of the seven eggs 

 found under her in the hollow of an old birch-trunk; but Wolley is quite 

 staggered by the resemblance of the eggs to those of the Wigeon, until 

 at length he convinces himself that there was a decided difference of 

 texture, the eggs of the rarer Duck being smoother. Then follows the 

 acquisition of the other four eggs belonging to the clutch, together with 

 some of the down, which was very pale. 



Harvie-Brown and I were fortunate enough to secure eggs of the Smew 

 in North-east Russia. A few miles to the south of the Arctic circle, in the 

 valley of the Petchora, is the small town of Haberiki, containing about a 

 dozen houses. The timber for about a mile round has been cleared, but 

 beyond the country consists of alternate lake, swamp, and forest. Grand 

 old pines and larches, with stems three or four feet in diameter, conceal 

 charming little alder and willow- fringed pools, and fallen trunks, covered 

 with moss and lichen, provide excellent cover for watching the Ducks 

 swimming fearlessly in these little paradises. The Smew is the greatest 

 ornament of these picturesque little spots, but is not quite so common as 

 Teal, Wigeon, and Pintail. We did not succeed in taking the nest of the 

 Smew ; but having commissioned some of the villagers to bring us ego-s 

 and down of Ducks, we were delighted to receive a clutch of what looked 

 like Wigeon's eggs with pale grey down. The man who brorght it 

 knew the bird well^ and told us that he had taken the eggs from a hollow 



