476 SMEW. 
and Central Europe prove attractive to a tolerable number, and 
many pass down the Rhone valley to the Mediterranean, where the 
bird is generally distributed in winter. Its western breeding-limit 
appears to be in Finnish Lapland, and there Wolley obtained the 
first authenticated eggs on record ; it also nests in Northern Russia 
and for a considerable distance southward along the Ural Moun- 
tains ; while lines of migration run down to the Avgean, the Black 
Sea, and the Caspian. In summer the Smew is found across 
Siberia up to the limit of forest-growth, and in cold weather it visits 
Japan, China, and Northern India. An ancient specimen in the 
British Museum is said to have come from “ North America.” 
It was only after four years of arduous research, and persistent 
inquiry respecting the breeding habits of the ‘‘ Uinilo,” as the Finns 
call the Smew, that Wolley succeeded in obtaining three eggs, which, 
with the female bird, had been taken from a hollow in an old rotten 
birch-stump, on June 8th 1857; while four more belonging to the 
same clutch were afterwards sent to him. In 1875 Messrs. Harvie- 
Brown and Seebohm had four eggs brought to them at Habariki on 
the Petchora, a little south of the Arctic circle, and they afterwards 
procured from the nest some of the down, which is white. The 
eggs are cream-coloured, like those of the Wigeon, but they have a 
close-grained surface, and are much heavier, though slightly smaller : 
measurements 2 in. by 1°45 in. The food consists of fish, crus- 
taceans &c. The Smew, like the rest of the genus, is an excellent 
diver, but it walks with difficulty, owing to the backward position of 
its legs. 
The adult male in spring has the short bill slate-blue, with a white 
nail; irides reddish; round each eye a black patch; forehead, 
crown and elongated crest satin-white, the latter set off by a 
triangular patch of greenish-black ; throat, neck, and under parts 
white; back black, with a crescentic mottled band of the same 
colour stretching over each side of the shoulders and another in 
front of each wing ; scapulars white, margined with black ; lesser 
wing-coverts white; greater coverts black, with two narrow white 
bars ; quills and tail-feathers blackish-brown ; flanks finely vermicu- 
lated with grey; legs and toes lead-colour. In June the female 
plumage is assumed and is retained until the autumn. Length 
17°5 in. ; wing 7°6 in. The hen-bird is much smaller; she has a 
black patch on the lores (not assumed till the second moult); head 
reddish-brown, with a nuchal stripe and collar of ash-grey ; upper 
parts much as in the male; under parts pure white. In the young 
the upper surface is mottled with grey. 
