154 
THE SMEW. 
THE SMEW, OR WHITE NUN— MERGES ALBELLUS, 
Plate LXXI.— Fig. 4 
Le petit liarle huppe, ou la piette, JBriss. vi. p. 243, 3. pi. 24, fig. 1. — Suff. viii. 
p. 275, pi. 24. — PI. JEnl. 449. — Bewick, ii. p. 238 Path. Syn. lii. p. 428. 
— Arct. Zool. No. 468. 
MERGUS ALBELLUS.— Li'snmvs.* 
Mergus albeUus, Linn, Syst, i. p. 209 Bonap. Synop. p. 397. — Harle piette, 
Temm. Man. d' Ornith. ii. p. 887. — Minute merganser, Mont. Ornith. Diet. i. 
and Supp. — Lougli diver, and red-headed smew, Penn, for young and female. — 
Smew, Selby, Illust. Br. Ornith. pi. 69. 
This is anotlier 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 Eng- 
land it is named the magpie driver. Its breeding-place is 
doubtless in the Arctic regions, as it frequents Iceland ; and 
has been observed to migrate with other mergansers and seve- 
ral kinds of ducks up the river Wolga in February .f 
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 merganser, but not so strongly 
* The male of this merganser is one of the cleanest and most delicate-look- 
ing of the genus, the colours being entirely of the purest black and white. The 
hill presents a shorter and more dilated form than its congeners, approach- 
ing almost to some of the more aberrant ducks. It is very rare in this country, 
and appears only in winter. The propagation and extent of the breeding migra- 
tions are only surmised, and we possess no very authentic authority upon the 
subject ; they are said, however, to resemble the others.— Eu. 
-j* Dec. Russ. ii. p. 145. 
