THE SMEW. 53 
does not rise so high in the forehead; the general colour is a 
dark reddish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every- 
where spotted with black ; wings, dusky, edged with reddish ; 
the greater coverts, and some of the secondaries, are tipt with 
white; tail, brownish black, lighter than in the male; the 
plumage in general is centred with bars of black, and broadly 
bordered with rufous drab; cheeks and space over the eye, 
light drab ; belly, dusky, obscurely mottled with black ; legs 
and feet, as in the male. 
Van Troil, in his “ Letters on Iceland,” observes respecting 
this duck, that “the young ones quit the nest soon after they 
are hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the 
water, where, having taken them on her back, she swims with 
them a few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on 
the water! In this situation they soon learn to take care of 
themselves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the land, but 
live among the rocks, and feed on insects and seaweed.” 
Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, 
but hitherto without success. 
THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. (Wergus albellus.) 
PLATE LXXL—Fre. 4 
Le Petit Harle Huppé, ou la Piette, Briss. vi. p. 243, 3, pl. 24, fig. 1.—Buff. viii. 
p. 275, pl. 24.—Pl. enl. 449.—Bewick, ii. p. 258.—Lath. Syn. ili. p. 428.— 
Arct Zool. No. 468. 
MERGUS ALBELLUS.—LINNAUS.* 
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. 1. 
and Suwpp.—Lough Diver, and Red-headed Smew, Penn., for young and 
female.—Smew, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 69. 
Tuis is another of those mergansers commonly known in this 
country by the appellation of fishermen, fisher ducks, or divers. 
* The male of this merganser is one of the cleanest and most delicate- 
looking of the genus, the colours being entirely of the purest black and 
white. The bill presents a shorter and more dilated form than its con- 
