264 



WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



The Skimmers keep in small parties near the shores, and seldom 

 venture far to sea. They seek repose on the strand, and in the neigh- 

 bouring marshes ; walk badly, keep much on wing, seldom alight- 

 ing, particularly on the water, and they never swim, notwithstanding 

 the presence of their webbed feet. They fly slowly, flapping their 

 wings while in quest of prey, but proceed swift and tortuous in their 

 course when it is once discovered. Their voice is loud, harsh, and 

 screaming. They feed on small fish, and other light productions of 

 the ocean, skimming along the surface of the water, in which they 

 dip the lower mandible, the upper being elevated out of the water 

 until the prey is felt by the lower. They breed in society, on rocks, 

 or on sandy and elevated shores, without forming any artificial nest ; 

 and la}^ three oval eggs ; raising but a single brood. — The Skimmers 

 are chiefly inhabitants of tropical climates ; and are found in all lon- 

 gitudes. The genus consists, however, of but three species, there 

 being, besides the present, one in India, and another in tropical 

 America. 



BLACK SKIMMER. 



(Bliincops nigra, Lin. Bonap. Synops. No. 283. Cut Water, Cates- 

 BY, i. p. 90. Arct. Zool. No. 445. Wilson, vii. p. 85. pi. CO. fig. 4. 

 Le Bee en Ciseaux, Bvff. viii. p. 454, tab. 3G. PI. Enlum. 357. Phil. 

 Museum. No. 3530.; 



Sp. Charact. — Black , beneath white; bill and feet red, the former 

 black at the point. 



The Cut-Water or Black Skimmer, is a bird of passage 

 in the United States, appearing in New Jersey from its trop- 

 ical winter quarters early in May. Here it resides and 

 breeds in its favorite haunts, along the low sand-bars, and 

 dry flats of the strand, in the immediate vicinity of the 

 ocean. Their nests have been found along the shores of 

 Cape May, about the beginning of June, and consist of a 

 mere hollow scratched out in the sand, without the addi- 

 tion of any extraneous materials. The eggs are usually 

 3 in number, oval, about If to 2 inches by 1^, and nearly 



