THE SMEW. 297 
through whom he procured the eggs. Apparently they nest 
in holes in trees, which they line with their own down, and 
in which, during the latter part of May and the first-half of 
June, they lay seven or more eggs. 
The eggs are extremely like those of the Wigeon, but rather 
smaller on the average, smoother and more polished, more as 
regards texture like those of the Goosander. The eggs seem 
also to be often characterized by a thin calcareous coating out- 
side the egg-shell proper, of the same nature as that so con- 
spicuous, in some eggs of the Common Swan. Four of Wolley’s 
eggs measure 2°04 to 2°05 by 1°42 to 1°52. 
It is quite possible that in other places it may, as stated by 
Temminck and others, breed on the ground or over the water 
in thick rushes on the borders of lakes and rivers. 
THE FOLLOWING is a resumé of a large series of measurements 
in the flesh :— : 
Males—Length, 17'0 to 181; expanse, 26°3 to 28°7 ; wing, 
Za pLOno se tall (rom Vent, 3:3) tO Asi 5 tarsus, (12 to, 1231; 
bill from gape, 1°63 to 1'°72; weight, 1 Ib. 4 ozs. to 1 fb. 12 ozs. 
Females—Length, 15°5 to 16°75; expanse, 23°75 to 26°25; 
Wane. 7 Ol to.7-3) tail from: vent, 333 tO 3°95 tarsus, til to 
1'19 ; bill from gape, 1°48 to 16; weight, 1 lb. to 1 lb. 64 ozs. 
In fourteen specimens I have recorded the irides as brown 
or deep brown, in one as red brown, and / have observed no 
other colour. Macgillivray records it from fresh specimens 
examined by himself as red and bright red. Naumann says 
that in the young it is dark brown, (but many of my specimens 
were full-plumaged males,) then, (and permanently in the 
females,) dark nut brown, in males of the second year brownish 
- grey, later light ash grey, and in very old males a pure pearl 
colour or bluish white. 
The bill is, as a rule, a delicate pale plumbeous, sometimes a 
clearer and bluer tint, sometimes duskier, and in some speci- 
mens, young of both sexes and old females, it has been almost 
black. 
The nail is generally brownish, horny whitish at the extreme 
tip, but in some it has been bluish white throughout, and in 
some almost black throughout. 
The legs and feet vary from pale blue grey to plumbeous 
and dark lavender ; the webs, except just where they join 
the toes, being dusky to black, and the claws brownish black. 
Often there is an olive tinge on the tarsi, and occasionally, 
in the young only I think, both these and the toes exhibit 
small dusky spots and patches. 
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