122



Mr. J. L. Bonhote,



The adult plumage of the cock Smew is entirely white,

except for the mantle and quills which are jet black. The rump,

upper tail coverts, and tail are bluish grey, and the flanks are

delicately vermiculated with the same colour. Stretching half

way across the breast is a narrow black bar, and a shorter but

broader one starts a little farther back. The head, like the rest

of the body, is pure white, with the exception of a black patch

on either side extending from the base of the bill to the eye, and

another high up on the occiput divided from its fellow, with

which it really joins by the overlapping of the longer feathers of

the crown which form a small crest.


Towards the end of August my bird began to show signs

of assuming the eclipse plumage, and since, so far as I am

aware, this plumage has not hitherto been described, I watched it

with great interest.


In the eclipse plumage the crown of the head becomes of

dark chocolate colour as in the hen, while the sides of the head

become of a brighter and redder brown, shading off into

chocolate again behind the head. The black spot in front of the

eye still remains, although considerably shrunk in size, as do

also the two patches on the occiput. Owing, I presume, to mine

not having completed his change, an irregular line of white is

left from behind the eye to the occipital patch, and thence across

the head to join its fellow on the opposite side. The flanks,

instead of being vermiculated, are pure bluish grey, the colour

reaching as far as the anterior bar, and obliterating the posterior

one. A belt of the same colour extends across the chest. On

the back the mantle remains black , but the white scapulars are

replaced by new bluish grey feathers, f


The Smew has often been kept, but only for very short

periods, in the Zoological Gardens, and the only record relating


* T. have since found two descriptions, neither of which are correct ; the first in

Yarrell's British Birds, II. ed. ; the second in the Brit. Mus. Cat. of Birds.


t This is a careful description of my bird when it died. From a comparison of it with

several other skins there is little doubt that in the full eclipse plumage the head loses all

the white and also the two occipital patches, but traces of the dark spots at the base of the

bill are always to be found, both bars on the chest are entirely lost, but the mantle

apparently always remains black and forms the most easily distinguishable character by

which the adult cock in this plumage may be distinguished from the lien, and also from

cocks in their first year; these latter being often known as “ Red-headed Smews.”



