THE SKUA AND JAEGER FAMILY 257 



and flattened vertically. The upper mandible is similarly 

 shaped, but is shorter. 



AMien seeking food, the Skimmer looks for calm water, 

 and then, with most dexterous and well-balanced flight, it 

 slowly wings its way close down to the surface, so low that 

 the lower mandible is actually held in the water while the 

 bird is in full flight. Any small edible object that happens to 

 lie on the surface is shot into the mouth, through what is 

 really a very narrow opening. 



This is a bird of the tropics, and is much more at home on 

 the coast of British Guiana, among the scarlet ibises, than it 

 is on the coast of the United States anywhere north of Florida. 

 I have never seen it elsewhere than in South America, and 

 on our shores it is a visitor of great rarity. It nests on Cobb 

 Island, off the coast of Virginia, and lives long in comfortable 

 captivity. 



THE SKUA AND JAEGER FAMILY 



Stercorariidae 



The members of this Family are habitants of the cold 

 northern seas and high latitudes. They are strong- winged, 

 bold and hardy, and so frequently rob other sea-birds of their 

 prey that they are sometimes called the hawks of the sea. 

 Living examples are rarely seen save by persons who are 

 voyaging northward above the 40th parallel. Of the four 

 species inhabiting North America, the following is the one 

 most frequently seen in the United States. 



THE PARASITIC JAEGER 1 is quoted geographically as fol- 

 lows: "Northern part of northern hemisphere, southward in 



1 Ster-co-ra'ri-us par-a-sit'i-cus. Length, about 17 inches. 



