224 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



rather slow and heavj'. Oa land it is very awkward and walks with 

 difficulty. It is a shy and wary bird, and not easily approached. 

 Its food appears to consist entirely of small fish, molluscs and 

 crustaceans. 



MERGUS ALBELLUS, Linnaus. 

 SMEW. 



Mergus albellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i,p. 209 (1766) ; Salvador!, Cat. Binh 



Brit. Mil.';, xxvii, p. 464 ; Kocnig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 286. 

 Mergellus albellus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 404 (1867). 



Description. — Adult male, winter, from Italy. 



Upper-parts white, except the lores, a patch round the eye, a patch on 

 the hind part of the crown, liack, most of the quill-feathers, wing-coverts 

 and the tips of the scapulars, which are hlack, and the rump and tail- 

 feathers which are dark grey ; underparts silky-white, with dark gi'ey 

 vermiculations on the flanks ; occipital feathers slightly elongated. 



Iris bluish-white ; bill and feet plumbeous, the nail of the bill lighter. 



Total length 18 inches, wing 7'50, culmen 1, tarsus 1'50. 



Adult female, has the crown, nape and hind neck rufous- brown ; lores 

 blackish, upper-parts brown, the mantle greyish, underparts white ; measure- 

 ments rather less than in the male. 



Like the Goosander, the Smew is said to occur occasionally on 

 the Tunisian coasts in very severe winters, but like that bird, can 

 only be looked upon as an irregular and accidental visitor to the 

 shores of North-west Africa. According to Loche, the species is to be 

 met with occasionally in Algeria in severe winters, and two examples 

 of it, a male and a female, from that country, are preserved in the 

 Milan Museum, under the numbers 17,975 and 17,976. In Marocco 

 the species appears to have been met with near Tangier, and according 

 to Colonel Irby, it occurs in some seasons about the Straits of 

 Gibraltar in immature plumage. 



Throughout the Mediterranean generally the Smew occurs as a 

 winter migrant, and in some parts is not uncommon. In Northern 

 and Central Italy the species is even sometimes abundant during the 

 winter months, though adult males are much less frequently met 

 with than females and immature examples. 



