THE SMEW. 
155 
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, crossed with several faint dusky 
bars ; shoulder of the wing and primaries, 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 colour ; 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 shoulders, dull brown and whitish inter- 
mixed : 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 colour, from the 
garb of the female to that of the male, take place in the re- 
mote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity of de- 
tecting 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 markings, though not in the colours, 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 
