122 ON THE HABITS OF THE BLACK SKIMMER. 



that rarely consist of fewer than fifty ; and they are generally 

 attended with two or three condors, as many of the small 

 white kind above mentioned, and a whole flock of the vultu- 

 rine crow. An animal is no sooner shot than these birds ap- 

 pear hovering at an immense height in the air, from whence 

 they plunge down the moment that the carcase is left alone. 

 It has often been a subject of astonishment to me, from whence 

 they could so instantaneously collect themselves in a body to 

 souse upon their prey ; but at the same time it convinced me 

 of the accuracy of Pliny's observation, where he says that vul- 

 tures are accustomed to hover about a place two or three days 

 before the death of a diseased animal, and that they have a 

 presentiment when and at what time a carcase will be found." 

 — Barrow's Travels in Africa, vol. i. p. 223. 



ON THE HABITS OF THE BLACK SKIMMER OR SHEERWATER 



(rhyncops nigra, LINN.). 



[From Wilson's " American Ornithology,"] 



" This truly singular fowl is the only species of its tribe 

 hitherto discovered. Like many others, it is a bird of pas- 

 sage in the United States, and makes its first appearance on 

 the shores of New Jersey early in May. It resides there, as 

 well as along the whole Atlantic coast, during the summer, 

 and retires early in September. * ** * * He is found on 

 various coasts of Asia as well as America, residing principally 

 near the tropics, and migrating into the temperate regions of 

 the globe, only for the purpose of rearing his young. * * * 

 " The singular conformation of the bill of this bird has ex- 

 cited much surprise ; and some writers, measuring the divine 

 proportions of nature by their own contracted standards of 

 conception, in the plenitude of their vanitj r , have pronounced 

 it to be c a lame and defective weapon.' Such ignorant pre- 

 sumption, or rather impiety, ought to hide its head in the 

 dust on a calm display of the peculiar construction of this 

 singular bird, and the wisdom by which it is so admirably 

 adapted to the purposes or mode of existence for which it was 

 intended. The Sheerwater is formed for skimming, while on 

 wing, the surface of the sea for its food, which consists of 

 small fish, shrimps, young fry, &c, whose usual haunts are 

 near the shore and towards the surface. That the lower man- 

 dible, when dipt into and cleaving the water, might not re- 

 tard the bird's way, it is thinned and sharpened like the blade 

 of a knife -, the upper mandible, being at such times elevated 



