136 
SMEW, OR WHITE NUN. 
MERGUS ALBELLUS. 
[Plate LXXL— Fig. 4, Male.'] 
Gmel. Syst. I, p. 547, No. S ; M. minutus. Id. p. 548, No. 6. — Lid. Orn. p. 831, No. 6 ; 
Id. p. 832, No. 7. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 428, No. 5 ; Minute Merganser, Id. p. i,29.—Le pe- 
tit Harle hupc, on la Piette, Briss. VI, /;. 243, 3, pi. 24, Jig. 1, 2 ; VHarle etoile, Id. p. 
252, young ma/e.— B uff. VIII, p. 275, pi. 24 ; Id. p. 278. PI. Enl. 449; 450, female.— 
Bewick, II, p. 238.— Jrct. Zool. No. 468. Br. Zool. No. 262, 263.— Harle Piette, 
Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 887.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2944, a specimen from Europe. 
THIS is another of those Mergansers commonly known in 
this country by the appellation of Fishermen, Fisher Ducks, oi 
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 F ranee, 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 re- 
gions, as it frequents Iceland ; and has been observed 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 ; irides 
dark ; head crested ; crown white, hind-head black, round the 
area of the eye a large oval space of black ; whole neck, breast 
* Dec, Russ. II, p. 145. 
