618 THE SMEW. 
THE SMEW OR WHITE NUN.—M:ERGUS ALBELLUS. — 
Fic. 296. 
Le petit harle huppé, ou Ja piette, Briss. vi. p. 243, 3, pl. 24, fig. 1. — Buff. viii. p. 
215, pl.24. Pl onl. 449, Bewich, i. p.258.— Lath. Syn. ti. p. eee 
Zool. No. 468. 
MERGUS ALBELLUS.— Linnzvs.* 
Mergus albellus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 209.— Bonap. Synop. p. 397.— Harle piette, 
Temm. Man. d’ Ornith. ii. p. 887. — Minute Merganser, Mont. Ornith. Dict. i. and 
Supp. — Lough Diver, and Red-headed Smew, Penn. for young and female. — 
Smew, Selby, Mlust. Br. Ornith. pl. 69. 
Tats is another of those Mergansers commonly known in this country 
by the appellation of Fishermen, Fisher Ducks, or Divers. The present 
species is much more common on the coast of New England than farther 
to the south. On the. shores of New Jersey, it is very seldom met 
with; It is an admirable diver, and can continue fora long time un- 
der water. Its food is small fry, shell fish, shrimps, &c. In England, 
as with us, the Smew is seen only during winter; it is also found in 
France, in some parts of which it is called la Piette, as in parts of 
England it is named the Magpie Driver. Its breeding place is doubt- 
less'in the Arctic regions, as it frequents Iceland; and has been ob- 
served to migrate with other Mergansers, and several kinds of Ducks, 
up the River Wolga in February.t 
The Smew, or White Nun, is nineteen inches in length, and two 
feet three inches in extent ; bill, black, formed very much like that of the 
Red-breasted Merganser, but not so strongly toothed; irides, dark; 
head, crested ; crown, white ; hind head, black; round the area of the 
eye, alarge, oval space of black ; whole neck, breast, and belly, white, 
marked on the upper and lower part of the breast with a curving line 
of black; back, black; scapulars, white, crossed. with several faint 
dusky bars; shoulder of the wing, and primaries, black ; secondaries, 
and greater coverts, black, broadly tipped with white ; across the lesser 
coverts, a large band of white; sides and flanks, crossed with waving 
lines; tail, dark ash; legs and feet, pale bluish slate. 
The female is considerably less than the male ; the bill, a dark lead 
color; crest, of the same peculiar form as that of the male, but less, 
and of a reddish brown; marked round the area of the eyes with 
dusky ; cheeks, fore part of the neck, and belly, white ; round the mid- 
dle of the neck, a collar of pale brown; breast and shoulders, dull 
brown and whitish intermixed ; wings and back, marked, like those of 
the male, but of a deep brownish ash in those parts which in him are 
* The male of this Merganser is one of the cleanest and most delicate looking of 
the genus, the colors being entirely of the purest black and white. The bill presents 
a shorter and more ditated form than its congeners, approaching almost to some of 
the more aberrant Ducés. It is very rare in this country, and appears only in win- 
ter. The propagatio: and extent of the breeding migrations are only surmised, and 
we possess no very authentic authority upon the subject; they are said, however, to 
resemble the others. — Ep. 
+ Dec. Russ. ii. p. 145. 
3 
