on the Smew.



123



to it in captivity that I have been able to find is in Yarrell’s

British Birds, where it is stated that one lived for over two years

on the St. James’s Park water. This would be about 1840. It

apparently assumed its eclipse plumage yearly about the 15th

June, and used to consort almost exclusively with a female

Golden-Eye. Crosses, I believe wild-bred, between these two

species have been recorded on several occasions, and have

formed the basis of at least three new species.*


The specimen on the St. James’s Park water just referred

to was the property of what probably constituted the first

“ Avicultural Society.”


This Society was known by the name of the “Ornitho¬

logical Society of London,” and its objects were limited to the

keeping of rare or foreign birds (and more especially water

birds) in confinement.


It was started in the year 1837, or thereabouts, and had

very shortly enrolled some 200 members, amongst whom were

the late Mr. Yarrell and the late Lord Lilford. It received the

sole privilege of using the waters of the Royal parks for keeping

waterfowl, and proceeded to plant them with aquatic plants and

shrubs to encourage the birds to settle and breed.


Beyond these bare facts, and that its first Secretary was

Mr. Harry Chester and the offices in Pall Mall, I have been able

to ascertain little or nothing about it. It apparently published

no notes of any kind either in a journal of its own or in the

other scientific periodicals of the time, and I should be extremely

grateful if any reader could oblige me with any further

information.


In its wild state the Smew inhabits the northern regions

of the Old World, migrating South to the Mediterranean, Asia

Minor, and India during the winter, at which season it may

sometimes be found in great numbers round our coasts and

even at some distance inland, but it is essentially a sea Duck

frequenting sheltered bays and estuaries.


No account of this bird however brief would be complete

without mention being made of the finding of its eggs which for

so long had baffled collectors, by the indefatigable exertions of



Newton. P.Z.S., i860, p. 336.



