SPECIES 3. MERGUS ALBELLUS. 

 THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 



[Plate LXXL Fig. 4.] 



Le petit Harle huppe, ou la Piette, Bniss. vi, p. 243. 3. pi. 24. fg. \ . 

 BUFF, vin, p. 275. pi. 24. PL Enl. 449, male 450, female. 



BEWICK, n, p. 238. LATH. Syn. in, p 428. Arct. Zool. J\"o. 

 468. 



THIS is another of those Mergansers commonly known in 

 this country by the appellation of Fishermen, Fisher Ducks, or 

 Divers. The present species is much more common on the coasts 

 of New England than farther to the south. On the shores of 

 New Jersey it is very seldom met with. It is an admirable di- 

 ver, and can continue for a long time under water. Its food is 

 small fry, shell fish, shrimps, &c. In England, as with us, the 

 Smew is seen only during winter; it is also found in France, in 

 some parts of which it is called la Piette, as in parts of England 

 it is named the Magpie Diver. Its breeding place is doubtless 

 in the Arctic regions, as it frequents Iceland; and has been ob- 

 served to migrate with other Mergansers and several kinds of 

 Ducks up the river Wolga in February. * 



The Smew, or White Nun is nineteen inches in length, and 

 two feet three inches in extent; bill black, formed very much 

 like that of the Red-breasted M., but not so strongly toothed; 

 indes dark; head crested; crown white, hind head black, round 

 the area of the eye a large oval space of black; whole neck, breast, 

 and belly white, marked on the upper and lower part of the 

 breast with a curving line of black; back black; scapulars white, 

 crossed with several faint dusky bars; shoulder of the wing and 

 primaries black, secondaries and greater coverts black broadly 



* Dec. Russ. ii, p. 145. 



