BIRDS 311 



trace the Smew in the heart of the Lake district. A man 

 named Watson of Little Salkeld showed me a young drake 

 which he shot on the Eden near that place about the year 

 1870 ; just when a sharp thaw had succeeded to a severe frost. 

 It was alone and was diving when he shot it. This bird had 

 doubtless flown up the Eden from the Solway Firth, to which 

 Smews have always been irregular visitants, occurring repeat- 

 edly it is true, but only at long intervals. Dr. Heysham says 

 that in his time the Smew was rarely met with, and his son had a 

 similar experience. James Irwin wrote to T. C. Heysham in a 

 letter of January 13, 1841 : i A small Smew was shot in the 

 canal near Glasson a few days ago by a man named Hodgson. 

 He ate it, not knowing what it was.' Heysham purchased 

 another in Carlisle market in January 1848, between which 

 date and 1880 seven adult and immature Smews are known to 

 have been killed in Cumberland, nearly all upon the Eden. 

 Captain Irwin of Lynehow showed me a fine old Smew drake, 

 shot on the Lyne in December 1883. Nearly six years elapsed 

 before the species reappeared, in October 1889. On the 30th 

 of that month Nicol was shooting on the Waver when he fell 

 in with a bird in female dress. At the first glance he thought 

 it was a Long-tailed Duck, but it swam more rapidly, and 

 looked very small. He soon distinguished the dark reddish 

 crest, grey mantle and white fore-neck. It swam up the estuary 

 in front of his punt, with a flowing tide. The weather was 

 blustering and he thought that the bird had come in for shelter. 

 It seemed hopeless to shoot so apt a diver on the water, and 

 he therefore got a shot at it as it rose on the wing, dropping 

 it into the water. But it was only pinioned and easily dived 

 away. He did not see it again until the 13th of November, when 

 he and Law chased it up into a narrow channel, and despairing 

 of capturing it alive, shot it rather than allow it to be lost 

 altogether. No others were heard of until the severe winter of 

 1890-91, when many Smews visited different parts of England. 

 Mr. Thorpe purchased a female killed by some poor gunner 

 near Carlisle, on January 7, and on the 10th of the same 

 month a handsome drake was killed by Mr. Saul's keeper on 

 the Eden. Mr. George Saul, who brought it to me for identifi- 



