BIRDS OF NEW YORK 1 53 



toward the tip; feet carmine; iris hazel. Immature: Upper parts grayish 

 brown ; under parts white ; bill and feet duller colored, bill smaller, imper- 

 fectly formed; tail less forked. 



Length 16-20 inches; extent 42-50; wing 13-16. 5; tail 4-6, forked 1.5; 

 bill, upper mandible 3; under mandible 3.5-4.5; gape 4.5; depth of under 

 mandible .6; tarsus 1.45; middle toe and claw 1.3. 



The Black skimmer. Scissor bill, Cutwater, or Shearwater, is an occa- 

 sional summer visitant off the shores of Long Island, but is not known to 

 breed north of Egg Harbor, N. J. Giraud wrote, "It is not very common 

 with us," but DeKay said, "It is common enough with us." The following 

 recent records are all that have come to my attention : 



Rockaway, L. I. July 26, 1876, (2); Sept. 3, 1876. N. T. Lawrence, Forest and Stream, 



10: 235 

 South Oyster Bay, L. I. Aug. 2, 1884. Grinnell, Forest and Stream, Aug. 7, 1884 

 Amityville, L. I. May 6, 1893, (2). (Chichester). Dutcher 



" May 20, 1898. " Braislin, p. 41 



Whitesboro, Oneida co., N. Y. Fall of 1893. Bagg, Auk, ii: 162 ; 



Order TTJBINARES 



Tube-nosed Swimmers 

 Order Procellariiformes, Sharpe's Hand-List 



Nostrils tubular; bill epignathous, hooked and enlarged at the tip; 

 covering of bill in several homy plates, showing sutures between; hind 

 toe very small or wanting, elevated; wings usually long and pointed; ten 

 stifE primaries; 10 to 30 short secondaries, the fifth wanting; tail rather 

 short, usually of 12 or 14 feathers; palate schizognathous ; nasals holorhinal; 

 also numerous other characters of internal anatomy ; plumage very compact 

 and oily; the body often so fat that it can be used as a lamp or candle; 

 sexes alike; seasonal changes in plumage, if any, not determined; color 

 inclining to uniformity, mostly sooty and white; a single egg laid on the 

 ground or in a burrow. 



These birds are pelagic in distribution, frequenting the shore only for 

 purposes of reproduction, and never found inland except when driven 

 astray by storms. The species are largely cosmopolitan, often ranging 



