THE BLACK SKIMMER. 553 



is a rude and slight arrangement of weather-beaten and 

 partly decayed rushes, placed on a bit of floating slab, or 

 on one of those compact, floating beds of debris, which be- 

 come anchored in large quantity in the bends of the chan- 

 nels, or among the sedges. On this water-soaked affair, the 

 eggs, 1-3, are placed, some 1.32X.95, varying from brown 

 to dark-green in color, spotted and blotched with several 

 shades of dark-brown and neutral. Always dark, they 

 vary greatly in form, ground-color and marking. This 

 Tern, some 9.50 long, winters south of the United States. 



THE BLACK SKIMMER. 



On Barnegat Bay, especially about the inlet, I used to see 

 occasionally some half-dozen Black Skimmers {Rhynchops 

 m'gra), flying closely as they skimmed the surface in search 

 of their food of small fry. Length, 17.50; stretch, 42.00; 

 upper parts black; forehead, tips of secondaries, outer webs 

 of tail feathers, white, this species might pass for a large 

 black Tern, were it not for its peculiar bill. The lower man- 

 dible, some 4.50 long, is as flat as a knife blade, the upper, 

 edge fitting into a groove in the upper mandible, which is 

 about an inch shorter. With this strongly specialized mem- 

 ber, it plows the surface of the water at flood-tides, when 

 its food is most abundant near the surface. Few instances, 

 even in bird-life, can furnish a more obvious evidence of 

 design. Here is a species which, from the length of its 

 wings and neck, the shape of its bill and its mode of flight, 

 is evidently designed to take its food in a peculiar manner 

 by skimming or plowing the surface for the small fry 

 which approach it in flood-tides. ^In Florida, where it is 

 found throughout the year, Mr. Maynard reports it as 

 feeding mostly at night or in cloudy weather. Breeding in 

 communities on the sanely beaches, as far north as New 

 Jersey, the eggs, 2 or 3, are placed in a hollow in the sand. 



