452 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Habits. The Smew is certainly the least maritime of the Mergansers, 

 although it is most frequently met with on the coasts, and not inland, during its 

 winter visits to the British Islands. Here, as elsewhere in the southern limits 

 of its winter area, young birds are apparently most frequent, possibly because the 

 old birds keep more out to sea. The Smew remains in its usual haunts as long as 

 the water remains free from ice, and even in the exceptionally severe climate of 

 Asia it is a bird of late passage. Hume states that even in Upper India it does 

 not arrive until November, and that it leaves equally early in spring, most having 

 left the country by the end of March. Not only so, but its appearances are rare 

 and irregular, and mostly confined to immature individuals. Like all its allies it 

 is a very gregarious bird during winter, and lives in flocks of varying size up to 

 thirty or forty individuals. Its favourite haunts in India are large rivers and 

 lakes, but it occasionally frequents smaller sheets of water. Where its haunts 

 are extensive it usually remains the entire winter sedentary, but in the more 

 restricted waters it is more restless, and generally deserts them altogether if much 

 sought by the gunner. It is a wary bird, keeping well out from shore in the open 

 water, and even when diving a few individuals remain on the surface to watch 

 for danger. This it usually seeks to evade by swimming quickly away, its body 

 low in the water, and when fired at dives at once, and reappears well out of 

 range. The flock after having dived en masse, come up in scattered order, but 

 each bird swims to a converging point, and all are soon bunched together again. 

 If hard pressed the birds rise and circle in the air, again dropping perhaps several 

 miles away. The Smew is said to be ever a restless, active bird, swimming to 

 and fro and diving at intervals. It rarely visits land, and even sleeps upon the 

 water. Its flight is quick but almost silent, and the bird rises out of the water 

 with little effort or splash. The Smew is a most accomplished diver, and 

 according to Hume its movements under water are even more rapid than those 

 of the Cormorants or Grebes. The wings are used in diving, and the birds 

 frequently go to a great depth, and remain under water for a minute at a time. 

 The food of this Duck is composed principally of small fish, but frogs, aquatic 

 insects, and crustaceans are also eaten. The bird is not known to eat anything 

 of a vegetable nature. The note of the Smew is described as a harsh kurr, but 

 it is a remarkably silent bird in its winter quarters. Jerdon states that it 

 utters an oft-repeated bell-like call, probably at its breeding grounds, because this 

 peculiar note has won for it the name of Bell Duck in Northern Asia. The flesh 

 of this species is rank and unpalatable. 



Nidification. The breeding grounds of the Smew are situated in the 

 swampy forest districts of the Arctic regions where lakes and streams abound, 

 where big swamps, studded with pools connected by streams, and surrounded by 

 trees form a pleasant relief to the monotony of the northern forests. It is a 

 rather late breeder, not laying until July or the very end of June. The nest is 



