358 KATATORES. 



The markings of the smew are very striking, and distinguish 

 it readily from every other bird 



The length of the male is eighteen inches, the extent about 

 twenty-six, and it weighs rather more than a pound and a 

 half. It is a bird of elegant form, and the pure black and 

 white of its plumage render it a very conspicuous object, 

 as it alternately plays on the surface and dives in the 

 water. 



The bill, which is about two inches long, rather tapering 

 to the hooked tip, and serrated, but not quite so deeply as in 

 the other species, is bluish black ; the feet are the same, and 

 the irides dark brown. On the eye there is a large oval 

 black spot glossed with green, and the under side of the crest 

 backwards is also black, defining the hinder outline of the 

 head, and giving the white upper part of the crest the 

 appearance of a floating plume of white. The neck, as far as 

 the shoulders, and all the under part to the vent, are pure 

 white. The sides under the wings, and partially below the 

 closed wing backwards, are beautifully mottled with small 

 curved lines of black. The back is black, and the scapulars 

 white, with a few thin oblique black lines. From the upper 

 part of the black on the back, there are a few short curves of 

 black across the white on the shoulder, the upper one of 

 which extends in slight arches or scollops nearly to the 

 middle of the breast. The other two curved black lines pro- 

 ceed from the back, by the top of the white scapulars, under 

 the bend of the closed wing, and turn forward on the lower 

 part of the breast, but do not approach each other so nearly 

 as those on the upper part. The ridge of the wing and the 

 primary quills are black ; the middle coverts white ; and the 

 greater covers and secondaries black with white tips ; thus 

 forming a broad patch and two narrow bands of white. The 

 tail is dark ash colour, and contains sixteen feathers. 



The female is considerably smaller than the male, has the 



