THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 247 



288, MESGUS ALBELLUS, LINNAEUS AKD WILSON. 



THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 

 WILSON, PLATE I.XXI. FIG. IV. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



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 coast of New England than farther to 

 the south. On the shores of New Jersey it is very 

 seldom met with. It is an admirable diver, 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 observed 

 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 merganser, but 

 not so strongly toothed ; irides, dark ; head, crested ; 

 crown, white ; hindhead, 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 tipt with white; 

 across the lesser coverts, a large band of white ; sides 

 and flanks, crossed with waving lines ; tail, dark ash ; 

 legs and feet, pale bluish slate. 



The female is considerably less than the male ; the 

 bill, a dark lead colour; crest of the same peculiar 



* Dec. Russ. ii, p. 145. 



