292 THE SAWBILLED-DUCKS 



early in June, but usually in the latter month ; 'and Ussher states that in Ireland 

 it is quite the exception to find the nest in May. Latitude seems to make little 

 difference to this species, for in Germany the usual time is about the second 

 week of June, and clutches may be found in Iceland about the same date. In 

 Russian Lapland, however, eggs were taken by the Pearsons late in June and 

 early in July. Only one brood is reared during the season, though a second 

 clutch is laid if the first is taken. [F. c. R. j.] 



5. Food. Although in the main a fish-eater and very destructive to 

 trout and salmon fry, this species has rather a wider range of diet than the 

 goosander. It has, however, an insatiable appetite. Oswin Lee mentions having 

 taken eleven good-sized salmon parr from one bird in July. On migration it appears 

 to be especially fond of small eels : Selby found two gorged with a quantity of 

 them about 2 or 3 inches long, and Bolam also notes the same thing. Other 

 fish which have been recorded are small plaice (A. C. Chapman) ; roach (Leuciscus 

 rutilus) and gudgeon (Odbio fluviatilis) are noted by Newstead ; Thompson mentions 

 the three-spined stickleback (Qasterosteus brachycentrus) and otoliths of some 

 member of the cod family (Gadidce), twenty-four sand-eels (Ammodytes lancea) 

 were taken from one bird (R. Ball), and young hake and pipe-fish are recorded by 

 R. Warren, and sprats and whiting by T. E. Gunn. Besides fish it occasionally 

 feeds on shrimps (A. C. Chapman) and Crustacea (Poole) ; H. W. Robinson has 

 also found crabs about the size of a shilling in a drake killed in November ; while 

 in the breeding season it will devour, according to Naumann, water-beetles, larvae 

 of insects, worms, more rarely frogs and some vegetable matter ; and Hartert gives 

 its summer diet as including crabs, cockchafers, worms, caterpillars, larvae of 

 dragon-flies, but no vegetable matter. The young are carefully tended by the 

 duck, and at first pick up insects from the surface as well as the mixed diet given 

 above. [F. c. E. j.] 



6. Song Period. The rough, purring double note of courtship was noted by 

 Dr. Townsend in April. [F. c. E. j.] 



SMEW [Mergus albellus Linnaeus. Nun, white-nun, smee ; redheaded- 

 smew (immature) ; white-wigeon, weasel-wigeon, magpie-diver (Ireland). 

 French, petit harle hupp6 ; German, kleiner Sdger ; Italian, pesciajola]. 



I. Description. With a serrated beak like that of the goosander and 

 merganser, but so short as to be less in length than the tarsus, the smew is easily 



