smew
(smjuː)
[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.
| 1674 Dent in Ray's Lett. (1718) 21 A Pocker, a Smew, three Sheldins. 1678 Ray tr. Willughby's Ornith. 338. 1709 Phil. Trans. XXVI. 466 Mergus major cirratus, the Smew, or White Nun. 1768 Pennant Brit. Zool. II. 439 Red-headed Smew. The head is slightly crested, and of a rust colour. 1785 Latham Gen. Synop. Birds III. ii. 429 The Smew is seen in England only in winter. 1838 Audubon Ornith. IV. 350 The Smew is a bird of extremely rare occurrence in the United States. 1891 Nature 4 June 106/2 Last January a friend showed me a smew..shot on the Dee, near Chester. |
| attrib. 1829 Griffith tr. Cuvier VIII. 626 Smew Merganser, Mergus Albellus. |