248 MERGUS ALBELLUS. 



form as that of the male, but less, and of a reddish 

 brown ; marked round the area of the eyes with dusky ; 

 cheeks, fore part of the neck, and belly, white ; round 

 the middle of the neck, a collar of pale brown ; breast 

 and shoulders, dull brown and whitish intermixed : 

 wings and back, marked like those of the male, but of 

 a deep brownish ash in those parts which in him are 

 black ; legs and feet, pale blue. The young birds, as 

 in the other three species, strongly resemble the female 

 during the first and part of the second year. As these 

 changes of colour, from the arb of the female to that 

 of the male, take place in tne remote regions of the 

 north, we have not the opportunity of detecting them 

 in their gradual progress to full plumage. Hence, as 

 both males and females have been found in the same 

 dress, some writers have considered them as a separate 

 species from the smew, and have given to them the 

 title of the red-headed smew. 



In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes 

 in the State of New York, where the smew is frequently 

 observed, these red-headed kind are often fouud in 

 company, and more numerous than the other, for very 

 obvious reasons, and bear, in the markings, though not 

 in the colours, of their plumage, evident proof of their 

 being the same species, but younger birds or females. 

 The male, like the Muscovy drake, and many others, 

 when arrived at his full size, is nearly one-third heavier 

 than tli' female, and this disproportion of weight, and 

 difference of colour, in the full-grown males and 

 females, are characteristic of the whole genus. 



