338 
4. 
SMEW 
M. 
DeEsCRIPTION. 
MERGANSER. 
Mereus albellus, Ind. Orn. it. p. 831.6. Male. 
Merganfer minor monialis alba diétus, Ger. Orz. v. t. 513. 
minor femina, Ger. Orn. v. t. 514. 
cinereus capite rufefcente, Ger. Orz. v. t. 511. 
Petit Harle huppé, La Piette, Buf. O7/ vill. p. 275. pl. 24.—P/. Enl. 440, 
Mergus minutus, fzd, Orn. ii. p. 832. 7. Female. 
Smew, or white Nun, Gen. Syx. vi. p. 428. 5. (Male. J—Lewin’s Br. Birds, vic 
t. 234.—Lin. Tranf, iv. p. 234. pl. xvi. f. 3. 4. 
Minute Merganfer, Gen. Syn. vi. p. 429.6, (Female, or young bird.) Lewin’: 
Br. Birds, t. 235 
E have obferved in another place *, that the Minute Merganfer, 
with its fynonyms, and the White Mergan/er, all make up but 
one fpecies, occafioned by the male having the female plumage for 
fome length of time after growing to fize; for having attentively 
examined and compared the windpipe of a fuppofed male Minute Mer- 
ganfer, with the fame part of a full grown Smew, the fimilarity at once 
was manifeft, no other difference whatever being vifible, further than 
that the parts were lefs offified in one than the other; henceforward 
therefore we may venture to affirm, that three diftiné& fpecies only. of 
the Smez genus will be found in England,,inftead of the five now on 
record. The trachea or windpipe of this {pecies is fmalleft near the 
upper part, but enlarges as it approaches towards the middle, from 
whence to the bottom it continues of nearly equal dimenfions, the 
texture confifting of completely bony rings, with fcarcely any carti- 
lage intervening; at the bottom isa bony cavity, as in the others,. 
{maller in proportion, and differing in fhape, the greater expanfe- be- 
ing from fide to fide, whereas in the others it is almoft upwards and 
downwards; on one fide is a round hole, covered by a drum-like mem- 
brane, and on the oppofite, an oval. fmooth hollow bone uniting with 
it: from the bottom arife the bronchize. 
* Lia. Tran... 
