WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 35 
The Smew. 
Mergus albellus, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. Ind., 
Birds. Volk IV; p. 467; 
VERNACULAR NAMES.—Nihenne, H., Etawah, 
N.-W. P. 
The male Smew is at once distinguished from all other 
Indian wildfow] by its striking plumage, which is nearly 
all white. The head, neck, and lower parts are white : 
but there is a black patch from the bill to behind the eye, 
and another at the back of the head ; the upper back 
is black, anda black line runs from this at each shoulder 
down the breast ; the scapulars are white with black 
oblique bars at the tips. The black of the back shades 
into the grey of the tail-coverts and tail, and the white 
flanks are pencilled with black. The wings have a 
black front edge and white ‘‘ shoulders ;’’ the primaries 
are brownish black, the secondaries and their coverts 
black, with white tips forming two bars, and the tertials 
grey and not very long. 
The female is dark grey above, this colour extending, 
mixed with white, across the breast ; the head is chestnut 
with a black patch on the face, and the throat and front 
of the neck white ; the wings are black and white as in 
the male. The crest is shorter than in that sex. 
The young birds are like the female, but have no 
black patch on the face, and the white patch on the 
wing is clouded with brown ; the male in undress is also 
very like the female, but shows the dark bands on the 
breast. The eyes are brown, but sometimes at all events 
white in males: the bill and feet are grey, not red as in 
the other Mergansers. The male is about sixteen inches 
long, with a wing about eight ; bill about one and-a-half, 
shank one and-a-quarter. 
The Smew is confined to the old world, breeding far 
north, and visiting in winter Central and Southern 
