364 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



it does not breed, but the nest has often been found in Scot- 

 land. When the bird has been long in salt water, the breast 

 becomes of a rich salmon colour. I have a female in my own 

 collection, shot at Shoreham in February 1842. Mr. Jeffery 

 (p. n.) mentions a male, killed at Selsey, December 1864, and 

 that he saw another male, killed in the neighbourhood, at Mr. 

 Beatson's shop in Chichester, in the same month j that in 

 January 1867 they were numerous, and many were killed in 

 Chichester and Bosham Harbours, and that he found an eel 

 nearly a foot long, and a small crab, in one from Bosham. 

 In 1871, Mr. Jeflfery saw four in Bosham Harbour, also a 

 few on the 18th of January, 1873, and one in the same year as 

 late as August 1st. In the ' Zoologist ' (p. 6606), Mr. Wilson 

 records a male, shot near Worthing, in the spring of 1853. 



SMEW. 



Mergus albellus. 



The Smew may be found in this county in considerable 

 numbers, in most severe winters, the females, known as 

 " Redheads," being the most common. Like the rest of the 

 Mergi, it gets its living entirely by diving, at which it, like 

 them, is a great adept, fish being its only food. 



Mr. Wolley, while in Lapland, was the first to find out its 

 breeding habits, of which a most interesting account may be 

 found in ' The Ibis ' for 1859 (pp. 69 to 76). The nest was 

 built in a hole of an old birch tree, which had been lined with 

 feathers. Mr. Wolley states that the Smew had a habit of 

 turing out the nest of the Golden-eye, and taking possession, 

 and that the eggs of the Smew being smaller, and thus less 

 saleable, the Smew, when caught in the hole, was killed by 

 the natives, I have an adult male in my own collection. 



