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