MERGANSERS. 



359 



beautiful smew {M. alhellus), in which the bill is much shorter and deeper, with 

 small and inconspicuous serrations, and the crest much smaller than in the preceding 

 species ; while the tail has frequently sixteen, in place of the usual eighteen feathers. 

 The male smew, which varies from 17 to 18 inches in length, has a greenish black 

 patch on the occiput, extending in a point on each side of the head, and another 

 between the eye and the beak, but the rest of the head, neck, and under-parts 

 mostly white ; the plumage of the upper-parts being pied with black, brown, grey, 

 and white. Females have the head and back of the neck mainly reddish brown, 

 with an inconspicuous crest. The smew is an inhabitant of the more Arctic regions 

 of the Old World in the breeding-season, rarely visiting the British Islands in 



HOODED MERGANSER. 



Habits. 



winter, but to the eastward migrating as far south as the north of Africa, Northeni 

 India, and Japan. 



Although in Europe the mergansers very generally frequent the 

 coast, those species which visit India are more commonly observed on 

 inland waters. All are strong, albeit somewhat heavy fliers, and most expert 

 swimmers and divers ; but on the land their movements are awkward and ungainly. 

 Their food consists entirely of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans, most of which are 

 procured by diving ; and in consequence of this diet their flesh is unpalatable in 

 the extreme. When fishing in flocks, as is often the habit of the goosander, the 

 whole party may frequently be seen to dive simultaneously; although not un- 

 commonly a few remain above water as if to act as sentinels. While the red- 

 breasted merganser nests on the ground among bushes, heather, or long grass, the 

 goosander nearly always, if not invariably, selects a hollow tree, or, failing that, a 

 cleft in a rock, as a breeding-place, sometimes taking advantage of the nest of a 

 crow or other bird. The creamy-white eggs of the latter species are from eight to 

 twelve in number; and the young, as soon as hatched, are carried down one by one 

 from the nest to the water in the beak of their parent. When floating at ease the 

 goosander sits as high in the water as a duck, but when swimming settles down 



