126 



THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 

 MERGUS ALBELLUS. 

 [Plate LXXI.— Fig. 4.] 



he petit Harle Imjype, ou la Piette, Briss. YI, p. 243. 3. pi. 24. Jig. 1. — ^Buff. VIII, p. 27B. pi. 24. ■ 



PI. Enl. 449. — Bewick, II, p. 238.— Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 428 Arct. Zool. JVo. 468. 



THIS is another of those Mergansers commonly known in 

 this country by the appellation of Fishermen, Fisher Ducks, or 

 Divers. 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, 

 shell fish, 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 Diver. Its breeding place is doubtless in the Arctic re- 

 gions, as it frequents Iceland ; and has been observed to migrate 

 with other Mergansers 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 M., 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, cross- 

 ed with several faint dusky bars; shoulder of the wing and prima- 



* Dec. Riiss. 11, p. 145. 



