THE SUEEUWATER. 535 



tlicy reiuuiu thei'c during the whole year, and that they breed in the marshes. During 

 the day they rest in flocks on the grassy phiins, at some distance from the water. Being 

 at anchor in a small vessel in one of the deep creeks between the islands in the Parana, 

 as the evening drew (o a close, one of these scissor-beaks suddenly appeared. The water 

 was quite still, and many little fish were rising. The bird continued for a long time to 

 skim (he surface, flying in its wild and irregular manner up and down the narrow 

 canal, now dark with the growing night and the shadows of the overhanging trees. At 

 Monte Video, I observed that large flocks remained during the day on. the mud-banks at 

 the head of the harbour, in the same manner as those which I observed on the grassy 

 plains near the I'arana. Every evening they took flight in a straight line seaward. 

 From these facts, I suspect that the rhynchops frequently fishes by night, at which 

 time many of the lower animals come more abundantly to the saiface than during the 

 day. I was led b}- these facts to specidate on the possibility of the bill of the ihynchops, 

 which is so pliable, being a delicate organ of touch. But ilr. Owen, who was kind 

 enough to examine the head of one which I brought home in spirits, writes to me 

 (August 7, 1837), that ' the residt of the dissection of the rhynchops, comparatively 

 with that of the head of the duck, is not what you anticipated. The facial or sensitive 

 branches of the fifth pair of nerves are very small ; the third division, in particular, is 

 filamentarj-, and I liaA'e not been able to trace it bej'ond the soft integuments at the 

 angles of the mouth. After removii^g with care the thin horny covering of the beak, I 

 cannot perceiA^e any trace of those nervous expansions which are so remarkable in the 

 lamellirostral aquatic birds, and which in them supplj' the tooth-like process and soft 

 marginal covering of the mandibles. Nevertheless, when wo remember how sensitive a 

 hair is through the nerN'c situated at its base, though without any in its substance, it 

 would not be safe to deny altogether a sensitive facidty in the beak of the rhyncliops.' " 



The organ which thus proves so useful as a skimmer, is no less so as an oyster-knife. 

 M. Lesson remarks : — " Though the Bec-en-ciseatix seems not favoured in the form of the 

 beak, we had proof that it knew how to use it with advantage, and with the greatest 

 address. The sandy beaches of Pence are in fact filled \;\ni mactrsc, bivalve shells, 

 \A-hich the ebbing tide leaves nearly dry in small pools ; the Bei'-eii-cisean.r, well aware of 

 this phenomenon, places itself near these mollusks, waits till their valves are opened a 

 little, and profits immediately by the occasion to plimge the lower and trenchant blade of 

 its bill between the valves, which immediately close. The bird then lifts the shell, beats 

 it on the beach, and cuts the ligament of the mollusk, whicli it then swallows without 

 obstacle. Many times have we been witnesses of this highly perfected instinct." 



Mr. Xuttall describes the sheerwater as a bird of passage in the United States ; and thinks 

 that it probably passes the breeding season along the whole of the southern coast of the 

 United States. " In New Jersey," he says, " it resides and breeds in its favourite 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 addition of 

 any extraneous materials. The eggs are usually tliroe in number, oval, about one inch and 

 three-quarters to two inches by one inch and a quarter, and nearly pure white, marked 

 almost all over with large umber-brown blotches and dashes of two shades, and other 

 faint ones appearing beneath the surface. In some eggs these particidar blotches arc 

 from half an inch to an inch in length. As the birds, like the terns and the gulls, to 

 which they are allied, remain gregarious through the breeding season, it is possible to 

 collect half a bushel or more of eggs from a single sand-bar, -nithin the compass of half 

 an acre; and though not very palatable, they are still eaten by the inhabitants of 

 the coast." 



