GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 463 



Time during which the Smew may be taken.— August 



1st to March ist. 



Habits. — The Smew is certainly the least maritime of the 

 Mergansers, although it is most frequently met with on the 

 coasts, and not inland, during its winter visits to the British 

 Islands. Here, as elsewhere in the southern limits of its winter 

 area, young birds are most frequent, confirming the oft-expressed 

 opinion of several ornithologists that birds of the year wander 

 further south as a rule than the adults. The Smew remains in 

 its usual haunts as long as the water remains free from ice, and 

 even in the exceptionally severe climate of Asia it is a bird of late 

 passage. Hume states that even in Upper India it does not arrive 

 until November, and that it leaves equally early in spring, most 

 having left the country by the end of March. Not only so, but its 

 appearances are rare and irregular, and mostly confined to immature 

 individuals. Like all its allies it is a very gregarious bird during 

 winter, and lives in flocks of varying size up to thirty or forty indi- 

 viduals. Its favourite haunts in India are large rivers and lakes, but 

 it occasionally frequents smaller sheets of water. Where its haunts 

 are extensive it usually remains the entire winter sedentary, but in 

 the more restricted waters it is" more restless, and generally 

 deserts them altogether if much sought by the gunner. It is a 

 wary bird, keeping well out from shore in the open water, and 

 even when diving a few individuals remain on the surface to watch 

 for danger. This it usually seeks to evade by swimming quickly 

 away, its body low in the water, and when fired at dives at once, 

 and reappears well out of range. The flock, after having dived 

 en masse, come up in scattered order, but each bird swims to 

 a converging point, and all are soon bunched together again. 

 If hard pressed the birds rise and circle in the air, again dropping 

 perhaps several miles away. The Smew is said to be ever a 

 restless, active bird, swimming to and fro and diving at intervals. 

 It rarely visits land, and even sleeps upon the water. Its flight 

 is quick but almost silent, and the bird rises out of the water 

 with little eff'ort or splash. The Smew is a most accomplished 

 diver, and according to Hume its movements under water are 

 even more rapid than those of the Cormorants or Grebes. The 

 wings are used in diving, and the birds frequently go to a great 



