SMEW.
MERGUS ALBELLUS, Linn.
Mergus albellus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 209 (1766); Naum. xii.
p. 314; Macg. v. p. 233; Yarr. ed. 4, iv. p. 499;
Dresser, vi. p. 699.
Le petit Harle huppe, French; Kleiner Sager, German;
Bech de serra petit, Catalan.
This species is a winter visitor to our country,
frequenting principally the estuaries of our eastern and
southern coasts; it is never very abundant, but its
numbers vary greatly in different years, often without
any perceptible weather-cause. As is the case with
many of our rarer Anatidce, adult males are comparatively
uncommon, at all events in our markets, either
because, as Mr. H. Saunders states, they keep farther
out at sea than the young birds and females, or because
of their extreme wariness. My own acquaintance with
the Smew in a natural state of freedom is chiefly confined
to having occasionally met with it singly on our
river Nene in Northamptonshire, generally, but not
invariably, during severe weather, and having found it
not uncommonly in the bays and creeks of Epirus and