THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
colour to drab with a greenish tinge; they measure about 2*6 by 1*7 
inches. Incubation lasts from twenty-six to twenty-eight days. 
The merganser is an expert diver, and feeds almost exclusively on 
fish, especially small trout and salmon -fry. Its flesh is unfit for the table, 
but it is constantly shot on account of the damage it does in the rivers. 
SMEW 
MERGUS ALBELLUS 
(Plate XXX, Figs. 9 and 9a) 
Mergus albellus, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 387 (1837) ; Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 699, 
pis. 454, 455 (1874) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, part xix, pi. (1891) ; Salvador!, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 464 (1895) ; Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 475 (1899). 
Mergellus albellus, Hume 8c Marshall, Game Birds Ind., iii, p. 293, pi. 39 (1880). 
''^1^ DULT male. — ^White, with a large patch at the base of the 
bill, including the eye, black; lower part of the white 
/ occipital crest, which is about an inch-and-a-half in length, 
i black glossed with green; back and rump black; upper 
M tail -coverts grey with pale edges; tail dark grey; two 
Vk. crescentic black bands on the sides of the breast; sides 
and flanks greyish -white with narrow wavy black lines; lesser wing- 
coverts blackish, median white; long outer secondary quills dark grey, 
followed by one with the outer web white edged with black; remaining 
secondaries and their greater coverts black tipped with white, the tips 
forming two white bands across a black ground; primary quills and 
their coverts brownish-black; axillaries white. Iris in very old birds 
bluish -white, usually reddish-brown; bill bluish lead -colour; legs and 
toes plumbeous, webs darker. Total length about 17 inches; bill 1*2 
inch; wing 7 5 inches; tail 2 • 8 inches; tarsus 1 ' 2 inch. 
Adult male in eclipse-plumage . — ^Resembles the female. 
Adult female . — ^Upperparts and sides of the head and nape chestnut- 
brown with a blackish patch on the lores; the rest of the upperparts, 
including the tail, dark brownish -grey, lighter on the scapulars; chin, 
throat and fore -neck white; chest pale grey; breast and rest of under- 
parts white; sides and flanks ashy-grey; wings much like those of the 
380 
