[Origin and relation to SMEE uncertain.] A saw-billed duck (Mergus or Mergellus albellus) belonging to the merganser group; the white nun. The female is known as the red-headed smew.

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1674.  Dent, in Ray’s Lett. (1718), 21. A Pocker, a Smew, three Sheldins.

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1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 338.

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1709.  Phil. Trans., XXVI. 466. Mergus major cirratus, the Smew, or White Nun.

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1768.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 439. Red-headed Smew. The head is slightly crested, and of a rust colour.

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1785.  Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. II. 429. The Smew is seen in England only in winter.

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1838.  Audubon, Ornith., IV. 350. The Smew is a bird of extremely rare occurrence in the United States.

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1891.  Nature, 4 June, 106/2. Last January a friend showed me a smew … shot on the Dee, near Chester.

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  attrib.  1829.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VIII. 626. Smew Merganser, Mergus Albellus.

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