SKIMMERS. 83 



to quote from 3Ii-. ^Villi;uu Brewster's exccllont pajier on the tci-ns of the New Eng- 

 land foast, "ujwn its ^•ictim is performed with iniiuitablc ease and grace. The bird 

 frequently disappears entirely beneath the surface, and occasionally even swims a 

 short distance under water before reappearing." Ilis description of the scene when a 

 flock of terns have discovered a school of blue-fish is so animateil and picturesque, 

 that I feel justificcl in ipioting once nioi'c: "Dozens dash down at once, cleaving the 

 water like darts, and, rising again into the air, shake the salt spray from their feathers 

 by a single energetic movement, and make ready for a fresh plunge. Every bird 

 among them is screaming his shrillest, and the excitement waxes fast and furious. 

 Beneath, the blue-fish are making the water l)oil by their savage rushes, and there is 

 fun and ]>rofit for all save the unfortunate prey." 



Though a group of considerable homogeneity, the SterneaB comprise a few somewhat 

 outlying genera, as the noddies (Anotcs), dusky of color, and the white terns ( Gijyis) 

 pure white all over, both forms with gi-aduated or wedgc-shajied tails. Both are trop- 

 ical, the latter especially inh.abiting the islands of tiie South Atlantic and the Indian 

 Ocean, Polynesia, and Australia, while numbers of the former genus also occur in the 

 Xcw World, a single species (^4. stolidus) even belonging to the fauna of the United 

 States. The genus (or rather su])er-geTius) Sterna, includes about fifty species, 

 among them our common terns, but is divisible into several more or less well-defined 

 groups. Thus the bird rei)resented in our cut (Sterna tsc/tegrava or caspia), the 

 largest .species, is the tyjie of T/udasscus, while the smallest s])ecies — for instance, our 

 .y. antillanan and the Eurojiean S, minitta — form the group Sttrmiht. 



We now come to a small group of Laroid birds, remarkable for their curious bill, 

 tlie lower mandible of which has been compared with a " shoi-t-handled pitchffirk," 

 and for their long wings, viz., the skinnners, the Khynchopina?, not less remarkalile for 

 their peculiar h.abits and their geographical distribution, parts of America, Asia, ami 

 Africa being inhabited by one species each. The American species (JUnjiichops nir/ni), 

 the black skimmer, or shearwater, as it is also called, which occurs on our east 

 coast up to New Jersey, lias found many excellent biographci-s and <k'scribcrs, from 

 whom we only make two selections. Our inunortal Wilson thus describes this singular 

 bird : "The shearwater is formed for skimming, while on wing, the surface of the sci 

 for its food, which consists of small fish, shrimi>s, yonng fry, etc., whose usual 

 haunts are near the shore and towards the surface. That the lower mandible, when 

 dipped into and cleaving the water, might not retard the bird's way, it is thinned and 

 sharjiened like the blade of a knife; the ujiper mandible, being at such times elevated 

 above water, is curtailed in its length, as being less necessary, but tapering gradually 

 to a ])oint, that, on shutting, it may offer less opposition. To prevent inconvenience 

 from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to the mere opening of the gul- 

 let, which indeed prevents mastication taking place there ; but the stomach, or gizz;ird, 

 to which this business is solely allotted, is of uncommon hanlness, strength, and mus- 

 cidarity ; far surpassing, in these resjwcts, any other water bird with which I am 

 ac(piainted. To all these is a<lded a vast expansion of wing, to enable the 

 bird to Kiil with sufficient celerity while dipping in the water. The general 

 proportion of the length of our swiftest hawks and swallows to their breadth is a.t 

 one to two ; but in the present case, as there is not only the resistance of the air, but 

 .also that of the water, to overcome, a still greater volume of wing is given, tlie shear- 

 water measuring nineteen inches in length, and upwarils of forty-four in extent. In 

 short, whoever Las attentively exauiiueJ this curious ai)paratus, and observed the pos- 



