26 



THE NIDIOLOGIST 



Photographs of Young Skimmers. 



With Notes on the Breeding Habits of 

 THESE Birds by Mr. Wm. Palmer. 



ABOUT the middle of last September 

 (1895) Mr. Wm: Palmer, of the United 

 ■ States National Museum of Washington, 

 D. C, kindly loaned me two living specimens 

 of the young of the Black Skimmer {Rhynchops 

 Jtigra). One of these was a bird rather more than 

 half -grown; the other was what might be called 

 a "nestling," being only about a week or ten 

 days old, or maybe more. It was my object to 

 obtain photographs of these specimens, and for 

 that purpose I had my son carry them out for 

 me to my home at Takoma, D. C, where, next 

 day being favorable, I devoted the forenoon to 

 the undertaking. Six or seven negatives were 

 obtained, four of the older bird, and the rest of 

 the younger one. Great difficulty was experi- 

 enced in getting these, as they were made by 

 me out of doors, and the subjects were ex- 

 tremely restless, and the light hard to handle. 

 However, several of the results were very good, 

 and the best of them are herewith presented to 

 the readers of The Nidiologist, as illustrations 

 to the present contribution. Many notes might 

 be given by me in the present connection, based 

 upon observations of these specimens during 

 the time they were in my possession, and I 

 would do this were it not for the fact that Mr. 

 William Palmer has very generously placed at 

 my disposal his own very interesting and full 

 account, written out shortly after his return 

 from his trip, and it gives me pleasure to here- 

 with append this account in full. 



Notes on Rhynchops by Mr. Palmer. 



"With the Common Tern, Black Skimmers 

 {Rhynchops nig?-a), or ' Flood Gulls,' as they are 

 best known to the fishermen, breed abundantly 

 on several of the smallest of the little group of 

 sandy islands known as the Issac's, which are 

 situated a mile or so to the eastward of Cape 

 Charles, Va. Unfortunately for their happi- 

 ness, however, these low barren islets are only 

 too easily reached by the fishermen in moderate 

 weather, with the result that few of these birds 

 are able to rear their young in safety, and all 

 other sea birds are prevented entirely from ac- 

 complishing nidification. One of these fisher- 

 men informed me that he and another man took 

 each between four and five hundred eggs on 

 each of several occasions that he visited the 

 islands. The eggs were so numerous that on 

 the whole surface of the islands the nesting 

 sites were only about four or five feet apart. 



" The skin hunters also have had considerable 

 to do with reducing the numbers of sea birds 

 breeding on the islands along this coast. I am 



informed on excellent authority, and I knew the 

 parties about the time, that in one week three 

 men killed twenty-eight hundred (2,800) Least 

 Terns (Sterna antiUaruni)^ for which they re- 

 ceived from millinery rascals ten cents a head. 

 During the eighteen days that I spent lately in 

 the vicinity of Cape Charles, I saw but three 

 birds of this species. My friend, Mr. E. J. 

 Brown, of Washington, who, with several com- 

 panions, has spent several weeks about the same 

 locality, tells me that he has seen but two and 

 possibly heard a few more. 



" A large bird like the Skimmer is useless for 

 millinery purposes, but as the eggs are fairly 

 large and at certain times abundant, a visit is 

 sure to furnish the fisherman who makes the 

 trip with considerable egg food for his trouble. 

 Constant repetition of these visits shows results 

 eventually in the very few young birds that are 

 reared. 



" Tern's eggs are also taken, and other species 

 are so constantly interfered with that they do 

 not breed or else retreat to other places. 



" At the time of my visits (August 24 and Sep- 

 tember 6) I found a few nesting sites of Skim- 

 mers' containing one to three fresh eggs; more 

 containing four well-incubated eggs; others 

 containing eggs and newly hatched young. We 

 readily obtained on our first visit young of all 

 sizes up to those nearly able to fly; on our sec- 

 ond visit a dozen or two young were flying 

 about, while only two or three were noticed be- 

 fore. 



" Usually the very small young are found in ■ 

 the nest depression (a merely scratched-out 

 place) lying flat with head extended. Larger 

 ones are found on the higher parts of the sand 

 and extended in the same manner, while a few 

 will be noticed far ahead running about gener- 

 erally on the high-water line. When pursued 

 they readily run into the sea, and will even 

 swim out of reach, though they seem less will- 

 ing to do so than the young Terns of similar 

 sizes. I kept some alive for several weeks, and 

 even carried a few to Washington, where they 

 posed for the pictures shown. 



" These captive birds fed readily on minnows 

 and cut-up fish. Handing a bird a minnow it 

 invariably bit at one's fingers, and though I re- 

 peated the operation many times they persisted 

 with an unaccountable obstinacy in seizing hold 

 of my fingers, though every attempt was made 

 to render their seizure of the fish likely. At 

 first they did not feel inclined to pick up their 

 own food, and though I kept them in an old 

 boat with an inch or so of water and an abun- 

 dance of minnows, very few of them showed any 

 inclination at first to catch a meal. In this re- 

 spect they differed from Terns of the same age, 

 who eagerly tried to capture the minnows, and 



