THE SMEW 



127 



ries 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 color; 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 brown; breast and shoul- 

 ders dull brown and whitish intermixed ; wings and back marked 

 like those of the male ; but of a deep brownish ash in those parts 

 which in him are black ; legs and feet pale blue. The young 

 birds, as in the other three species, strongly resemble the female 

 during the first and part of the second year. As these changes of 

 color, from the garb of the female to that of the male, take place 

 in the remote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity of 

 detecting them in their gradual progress to full plumage. Hence, 

 as both males and females have been found in the same dress, 

 some writers have considered them as a separate species from the 

 Smew, and have given to them the title of the Red-headed Smew. 



In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes in the 

 state of New York, where the Smew is frequently observed, these 

 red-headed kind are often found in company, and more numerous 

 than the other, for very obvious reasons, and bear, in the mark- 

 ings, tho not in the colors, of their plumage, evident proof of their 

 being the same species, but younger birds or females. The male, 

 like the Muscovy Drake and many others, when arrived at his full 

 size is nearly one third heavier than the female, and this dispro- 

 portion of weight, and difference of color, in the full grown males 

 and females are characteristic of the whole genus. 



