200 The Water-fowl Family 



ground ; bill, slate ; nail, lighter ; iris, light gray ; legs and feet, 

 slate color, with dark webs. 



Measurements — Length, 16.75 inches; wing, 7.60 inches; oilmen, 

 1.25 inches; tarsus, 1.12 inches. 



Adult female — Head and neck posteriorly, chestnut-brown; lores 

 and cheeks, darker; throat and sides of neck, white; upper 

 parts, brownish gray, darkest on the rump ; jugulum, slaty gray ; 

 sides and flanks, brownish gray ; under parts, white ; tail, 

 brownish gray. 



Downy young — Upper parts with sides of head below eye, including 

 back of neck, blackish brown ; white spots below eye, at wing 

 joint, on side of back, and side of rump ; breast and flanks, 

 grayish brown ; rest of lower parts, white. 



Habitat — Breeds in northern Europe and Asia, occurring in migra- 

 tion east to the Commander Islands. Winters south to the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean, northern India, China, and Japan. 

 Recorded from northern North America and by Audubon from 

 Louisiana. 



A female of this bird, in the British Museum, 

 purchased from the Hudson Bay Company, and 

 a female, obtained by Audubon in Louisiana, in 

 181 7, are the two instances of the occurrence of 

 the smew in North America. 



The smew has many of the habits of our 

 hooded merganser, frequenting chiefly rivers and 

 lakes, seldom occurring in large flocks, and nest- 

 ing in hollow trees. In summer it occurs as far 

 north as the Kola Peninsula, Russia, the Yenisei 

 River, Siberia, and Kamchatka. In England the 

 adult male is known as the white widgeon, and 

 females and young males, in Devonshire, as vare 

 widgeon, from a fancied resemblance to the head 

 of a weasel there called vare. 



