204 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI/1. 
vegetation, so that the sportsman has but few opportunities of stalking 
them. Hume, however, tells us that they may sometimes be approached 
in a boat by sailing past at a distance of about forty yards ; in an 
ordinary native boat it is no use attempting to circumvent the Smew, 
for he can swim and dive almost as fast, if not faster, than the boat 
can travel. 
Like the genera Phalacrocoraz and Plotus it seems that the Smew 
makes use of its wings to assist it in diving, and like these birds it can 
swim at will with only its head and neck out of water, though nor- 
mally it swims with its whole upper parts out of water. 
Its food is practically entirely animal and consists of crustacea, 
molluses, water insects, larvee, small fishes, etc. The Smew itself is 
quite unfit for food; even Mr, Finn who considers that my remarks on 
the edible qualities of many ducks are rather unflattering, only remarks 
of this bird, “ The flesh is said to be very bad indeed, it being, accord- 
ing to Pallas, pesculentissima.” 
Mr. Finn also notes (Asian) ‘‘ It * * * * gets about nimbly enough on 
land where, however, it seems to be very rarely seen in a wild state. 
I judge from captives in the London Zoo.” Other authors have given 
ita very bad reputation for walking powers, but it is noticeable that 
most ducks have been very much underrated in this respect, and 
Mr. Finn has set right a goodly number of antiquated mistakes on 
this subject. 
As regards the breeding of the Smew there is not very much on 
record, and what little has been recorded by various authors is with re- 
ference to eggs got from other people. 
Weire says he took what he believed to be eggs of this species near 
Griefswald in Germany, but there was little by which he could identity 
them beyond the size and colour of the eggs and the fact that they were 
taken from a hojlow tree. He did not obtain or see the parents ; and 
though he was very likely right in his identification, they cannot be 
accepted as authentic without doubt. 
Mr. J. Wolley in the Jbis for 1859, pp. 69-76, describes at con- 
siderable length how he obtained eggs of the Smew through a certain 
Carl Lepparjervifrom Sodankyla. After trying for a long time to 
obtain eggs, without the slightest success, he received a small wooden 
oo 
box addressed to ‘‘ The English Gentleman, Joh Wolley in Mueniovaara,” 
