MERGUS. 197 



Male, 19, 28, 7, Hf, 1 T ^, Hf, T V Female, 17, 25. 



The proper country of this beautiful bird is North America, 

 where it breeds in the Arctic regions, and retires southward 

 early in September, passing the winter in the bays and estu- 

 aries, as well as on the inland waters. A few instances of 

 its occurrence in Europe have been recorded. Mr Selby added 

 it to the British Fauna, on the authority of a specimen killed 

 at Yarmouth in the winter of 1829. 



Hooded Merganser. 



Mergus cucullatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 207. Mergus cucul- 

 latus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 830, Mergus cucullatus, Temm. 

 Man. d'Ornith. iv. 557. Merganser cucullatus, Hooded Mer- 

 ganser, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, v. 



GENUS CXXXVL MERGUS. SMEW. 



The Smews differ little from the Mergansers, unless in 

 having only sixteen feathers to the tail, and especially in 

 presenting a bill which approaches considerably in form to 

 that of the Duck species. It is shorter than the head, straight, 

 rather stout, tapering, at the end nearly cylindrical ; the 

 unguis of the upper mandible oblongo -elliptical, and abruptly 

 decurved ; that of the lower, oblongo-trigonal and convex ; 

 the margins of both mandibles serrate with the dentiform ta- 

 pering, slightly reversed ends of the oblique short lamellae. 

 Mouth narrow, but dilatable ; tongue rather slender, fleshy, 

 bristly above and on the edges, with the tip narrow, but 

 rounded ; oesophagus very wide ; stomach roundish, very 

 muscular ; intestine long, with rather large coeca. 



270. MERGUS ALBELLUS. PIED SMEW. 



Male with the bill shorter than the head, straight, tapering, 

 nearly cylindrical at the end ; a decurved longitudinal white 

 crest ; on the fore part of the cheek a patch of greenish-black, 

 and along the occiput a band of the same ; the neck, scapulars, 

 smaller wing-coverts, and lower parts, white ; the back black, 

 shaded into grey behind ; a transverse black line on each 

 side, before the wing ; primary quills and coverts brownish- 

 black ; secondary quills and coverts black, tipped with white ; 

 scapulars edged with black ; sides partly grey. Female with 

 the upper part of the head, hind part of the cheeks, and nape, 

 brownish-red ; a blackish-brown patch on the fore part of the 

 cheek ; throat white ; lower part of neck all round ash-grey, 

 darker above ; back blackish-grey, its hind part and the sea- 



