152 \K\V YORK STATE MUSEUM 



inches. This American representative of the species nigra breeds from 

 Kansas and the Great Lakes to Alaska, migrating to the tropics and far into 

 South America in winter. In flight its wings seem excessively long and at 

 a distance it bears a great resemblance to the Nighthawk in size and color 

 as well as in its wing strokes and habit of hawking about over the marshes 

 in search of insects. I have little doubt that many of our April dates for 

 the arrival of the Nighthawk in New York really belong to this bird. While 

 searching the lake for food it carries its bill pointing downward like the other 

 terns and often plunges into the water for the minnows with which its 

 diet is varied. 



Family Ft YIMCHOPI13A.E 



Skimmers 



Bill hypognathous, the lower mandible being considerably longer than 

 the upper, compressed also, the lower mandible being thin like a knife blade 

 with an obtuse end. The upper mandible is much less compressed and has 

 a groove for the reception of the bladelike under mandible, and is hinged 

 near the base, so as to admit of free movement; tongue stimipy; wings 

 exceedingly long; legs and feet very small; tail slightly forked. Skimmers 

 fly low over the surface of the sea, inclining the fore part of the bodies 

 downward, with slow and measured wing beats, often cutting the surface 

 of the water with their knifelike bills and "plowing up" their food of small 

 marine animals. They are partially nocturnal in habits and hunt their 

 food in close-ranked companies. Their voice is "hoarse and raucous," 

 otherwise their habits resemble the terns to which they are closely allied. 

 This is a famil}^ of very few species, confined mostly to the tropical region, 

 only one species reaching the United States. 



Rynchops nigra Linnaeus 

 Black Skimmer 



Plate 7 



Rynchops nigra Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. i : 138 



DeKav. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 297, fig. 272 

 A. O.'U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 80 



ryn' chops, Gr. pvyxoi, beak, and oli/', face; ni'gra, Lat., black 



Description. Upper parts black; forehead, sides of the head, under 

 parts, tips of secondaries, and outer tail feathers white ; bill carmine, black 



