Smew
in ornithology, the Mergus albellus, called also the smee or nun, frequenting the seashore and also inland ponds and lakes of Europe and America.
The adult male is about 17 inches long; head, chin and neck white, a black patch round the eyes, and over the back of the head is a green streak forming, with some white elongated feathers, a kind of crest; back black, tail gray, wings black and white, under surface white, penciled with gray on the flanks. The female is smaller, with plumage chiefly reddish-brown and gray.
SMILACEÆ, sarsaparilla; an order of dictyogens. Herbs or under-shrubs often climbing, and with fleshy tuberous rhizomes; leaves reticulated; fruit, a roundish berry. Known genera, two; species 120, widely distributed, but most numerous in Asia and America.