SPECIES 3. MERGES ALBELLUS. 
THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 
[Plate LXXL— Fig. 4.] 
Le petit Hark huppe, ou laPiette, Buiss. vi, p. 243. 3. pi. 24. fig. 1. 
— Buff, viii, p. 275. pi. 24. — PI. Enl. 449, male 450, female. 
— Bewick, ii, p. 238. — Lath. Syn. iii, p 428. — Arei. ZnuL J^o. 
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 coasts 
of New England than farther to the south. On the shores of 
New Jersey it is very seldom met with. It is an admirable di- 
ver, 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 regions, as it frequents Iceland; and has been ob- 
served 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; 
indes 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, 
crossed with several faint dusky bars; shoulder of the wing and 
primaries black, secondaries and greater coverts black broadly 
Dec. Russ. II, p. 145. 
