262 INDIAN' i)i:cKs. 



(4'^) MERGUS ALBELLUS. 

 THE SMEW. 



Mergus albellus, Sahadori, Cat. B. M. xxvii, p. 404 ; Blanford, Fauna 



B. I. iv, [t. 467 : Oates, Game-B. ii, p. 413 ; Rattmy, Jour. B. N. 11. S. xii, 



p. 348. 

 Mergellus albellus, Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 81S ; Jhune, Sir. Fcnth. i, p. 265 ; 



Butler 4" Hume, ibid, iv, p. 31 ; Butler, ibid, vii, p. 188 ; B(dl, ibid. p. 233 ; 



Hume, Oat. no. 973 ; Hume c^- Mar. Game-B. iii, p. 293 ; lleid, Sir. Feath. 



X, p. 95; Barnes, B. of Bom. p. 417 ; Gates, Game-B. ii, p. 413. 



Description. Adult male. — A large patch from base of both mandibles to 

 back of eye and including base of ear-coverts black, with green reflections ; sub- 

 ordinate and lateral feathers of the crest the same, the black extending in a 

 narrow line, more or less, on the sides of the bead ; a crescentic black band above 

 the upper back descending down on either side of the breast ; back black, duller 

 on the lower back and changing to brown-grey on the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts, where the feathers are dark-centred : rest of head and whole lower 

 surface white, under aspect of tail pale grey, the feathers white-shafted except 

 at the tips ; primaries brow n, dark-shafted above, white-shafted below ; outer 

 secondaries black with white tips, the next two or three white, the innermost 

 silver-grey with dark shafts and white outer edges ; greater coverts black, those 

 over the secondaries tipped with white; median white, the remainder black; 

 scapulars white, the outer webs edged black, giving them a barred appearance, 

 and with a black bar across the base from the centre of the upper back, past the 

 shoulder of the wing, and on the sides of the body ; these and the flanks are 

 white, very finely barred with black. 



"Bill bluish lead-colour; nail generally brown, often paler ; irides brown ; 

 legs and feet lavender-grey." (Blanford.) 



" Bill of a bluish lead-colour ; irides bluish-white ; legs and feet bluish-lead, 

 webs darker." (Salvadori.) 



" In fourteen specimens I have recorded the irides as bro« n or deep brown 

 iu one as red-brown, and I have observed no other colour. Macgillivray records 

 it from fresh specimens, examined by himself, as red and bright red ; Naumann 

 says that in the young it is dark brown — then nut-brown, in males of the second 

 year brownish-grey, later light ash-grey, and in very old males a pure pearl 

 colour or bluish-white. 



" The bill is, as a rule, pale plumbeous, sometimes a clearer and bluer tint, 

 sometimes duskier, and in some specimens, young of both sexes and old females, 

 it has been almost black. 



" The nail is generally brownish, horny whitish at the extreme tip, but 

 in some it has beeii bluish-white throughout, and in some almost black 

 throughout. 



