54 THE SMEW. 
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 for a long time under water. Its food 
is small fry, shellfish, 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 breed- 
ing-place is doubtless in the arctic regions, as it frequents 
Iceland, and has been observed to migrate with other mer- 
gansers and several kinds of ducks up the river Wolga in 
February.* 
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, a large 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 tipt 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 colour; 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 middle of the neck, a collar of pale 
geners, approaching almost to some of the more aberrant ducks. It is 
very rare in this country, and appears only in winter. The propagation 
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.—Eb. 
* Dec. Russ. i. p. 145. 
