SMEW. 



M ERG US ALBELLUS, Linn. 



Mergus albellus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 209 (1766) ; Naum. xii. 

 p. 314; Macg. v. p. 233; Yarr. ed. 4, iv. p. 499; 

 Dresser, vi. p. 699. 



Le petit Harle huppe, French ; Kleiner Sciger, German ; 

 Bech de serra petit, Catalan. 



This species is a winter visitor to our country, 

 frequenting principally the estuaries of our eastern and 

 southern coasts ; it is never very abundant, but its 

 numbers vary greatly in different years, often without 

 any perceptible weather-cause. As is the case with 

 many of our rarer Anatidee, adult males are compara- 

 tively uncommon, at all events in our markets, cither 

 because, as Mr. H. Saunders states, they keep farther 

 out at sea than the young birds and females, or because 

 of their extreme wariness. My own acquaintance with 

 the Smew in a natural state of freedom is chiefly con- 

 fined to having occasionally met with it singly on our 

 river Nene in Northamptonshire, generally, but not 

 invariably, during severe weather, and having found it 

 not uncommonly in the bays and creeks of Epirus and 



