not notice it further south at the Koko-Nor. It is common
in winter in Japan, and in Eastern and South-Eastcrn
Siberia on passage, and some certainly breed there as
MiddendoriT had evidence of this at Udskoj and the Shantar
Islands (in about 55 degrees, North Latitude) ; and Radde also
says that some few remain to breed in the south of East
Siberia, but where the bulk of the birds, seen in winter in
China and India, breed, is still uncertain. In Eastern Turkestan
they arc merely winter visitants, and apparently pretty common,
as everyone who has been at Yarkand at that season has
procured or noticed them. In Western Turkestan it is also
common in winter, (except in the south-eastern districts,) and
occurs in lakes up to an elevation of 4 , 0 0 0 feet. It has been
observed in Afghanistan near Cabul, Ghazni, Khelat-i-Ghilzai
and Kandahar, but not as yet in Beluchistan. St. John shot
it at Teheran, and as it breeds in the neighbourhood of Astrachan,
there can be no doubt that, though not included by either
Menetries or Eichwald in their lists, it does really occur on the
Caspian. It appears to be found on the coasts of Asia Minor,
and has been procured on that of Palestine. No one has yet
observed it in Egypt, or anywhere in Northern Africa, except
in Algeria and Tangicrs,* where it is said to occur as a rare
winter visitant.
It occurs in winter as a straggler in Great Britain and Ireland,
and is found at that season, or on passage, pretty well all over
Europe, though chiefly near the coasts ; but it only appears to
breed in Northern and Eastern Finland and Northern and
Eastern Russia, in the latter as far south as Astrachan.
T H E SMEW arrives late even in Upper India, and the earliest
date on which I have noted having seen it, and that near Jhelum
in the NorthAVest Punjab, is the 3rd of November. It also,
I think, leaves early, as the latest date on which I have killed
it is the 27th of March. But it is, comparatively speaking, rare
and very irregular in its migrations, there being scarcely a
dozen places, that I know of, where you are always sure of
finding it, even between the 1st December and the end of
February, so that I cannot speak with any great certainty.
Comparatively few old males are seen in India. I have numbers
of notes like the following :—"Soj (south of the Mainpuri
District).—February 3rd, one adult, three young males, two
females, out of a flock containing three adult males and twenty or
more females and young."—Najjafgarh /////,30th December 1867.
—"A large flock, between thirty and forty, but containing only
four black and white males. Had only a common heavy native
"doongah" (row-boat), and could never get within one hundred
* Vide Dresser, who snys thnt Trby records it thence ; but Irby says nothing about
it in his Qui: S. of Gib, p 206.
THE SMEW.
yards, though I followed them about for an hour. At last fired
a 2J0Z. B. B. wire cartridge out of my long No. 8 bore with
seven drams of powder as the flock turned sideways, and killed
one and crippled two others, all young birds, distance over one
hundred yards," and so on ; and only once have I noted.
"Strange to say, seven out of the twelve were old males, and
as I worked up to the flock, I noticed that, for once, fully half
the birds were black and white."
Of many migratory species, the mass of those that go
farthest south arc birds of the year,* and the great prevalence of
these amongst the flocks of this species that are met with here
may be explained by the fact that Upper India is the southernmost
region which this species regularly visits.
They are eminently gregarious, and arc always seen in flocks of
from seven to forty, and rarely in larger or smaller parties than
from about a dozen to about twenty. Large rivers, like the Indus,
(I have never seen them on the Jumna or Ganges) or large lakes
covering 2 0 square miles and upwards of country, are what they
chiefly affect; and on these, even though shot at repeatedly, they
will remain for months. I have, however, in unfrequented
localities, occasionally seen them on ordinary good-sized jhi'Is,
covering, perhaps, barely a single square mile, but these they
desert directly they are at all worried.
As a rule, they are wary birds, and difficult to approach.
They keep in deep water, far away from any cover, and you
can only shoot them from a boat. They can swim faster than
any ordinary up-country native boat can be propelled, and faster
than one can paddle a punt when lying down. They keep a
very sharp look-out, never diving en masse, but some always
watching, whilst the rest are under water, and, as a rule, the
moment they see any boat they swim away. In the grey of the
morning, when a light stratum of mist lies along the surface of
the water, you may creep up in a punt within shot, unnoticed ; but
then one is very apt, peering through the mist in the twilight,
to misjudge distances, and generally make a mess of the matter.
Once knowing of a large party of Smews, I went after them
early, and as I thought found and fired at them, to find directly
I stood up, that I had killed half a boat-load of stilts, small
paddy birds, and all kinds of useless waders, standing up
to their bellies in the water on a hidden shoal, which, as they
loomed through the mist, I could have sworn were the Smews.
If you wait, as one does with most other fowl, till 3*ou can
make certain what they arc, they see you, and away they go
swimming with little, but their heads and necks visible, faster
than you can paddle. But at times, I presume when they have
* Mr, Wallace (Geog. Dist. An , p. 26) seems to take an opposite view, and holds
that the young birds do not go as far as the old ; but I can only say. that here in
India it is the young birds that straggle, in the case of many species, faithest
sou til.