body white. The whole length is about twenty-one inches;
the wing nine inches and a half.
Young birds resemble adult females during their first
winter. The sex of the males, however, in any state of
plumage, may be ascertained by passing the finger and
thumb down the neck, along the line of the trachea; the
male has an enlargement of the tube before it passes into
the body; the tube of the trachea in the female is uniform
in its size throughout its whole length. Young males do
not obtain their fine plumage till after their second autumn
moult, and old males from early spring till their autumn
moult begins, lose the rich glossy green of the head and
neck, which degenerates into an obscure brown, while the
fine chestnut colour of the breast entirely disappears.
A NSERES. A NA TIDJi
M e r g u s a l b e l l u s , Linnaeus.*
THE SMEW.
Mergus albellus.
T h e S m ew , Smee, or Nun, as it is sometimes called, is a
winter visitor to the British Islands, frequenting our rivers
and large pieces of fresh water, as well as most parts of
the coast, especially in severe seasons. The adult male, a
handsome bird, remarkable for the contrast rather than the
variety of the colours of his plumage, is, however, decidedly
rare, but young birds and females, frequently called Redheaded
Smews, are not uncommon. The species appears
to be a more frequent visitor to the eastern side of England
and Scotland than to the west, and, when found on
the latter, it is generally on rivers or fresh-water lochs.
In Ireland it is of irregular occurrence on the coast and
* Mergus Albellus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 209 (1766).