262 SWIMMERS. 



face of the restless deep would be to them, with the peculiai 

 mechanism of their bill, a barren void over which they conse- 

 quently never roam, and on whose bosom they rarely ever rest, 

 preferring, with the Terns, when satisfied with food, the calm, 

 indolent, and surer repose of the isolated shoal left bare by 

 the recess of the tide, where, associated in flocks, they are often 

 seen to rest from their toilsome and precarious employ. 



The Skimmer continues to this day to make its nest on the 

 sands of the New Jersey shore, and thence southward, and is rather 

 common on the coast of Virginia and Florida. Fishermen have 

 reported that Skimmers nested on Muskegat many years; but they 

 have ceased coming so far north regularly, though occasionally, 

 after the breeding season is over, an individual makes an excursion 

 along the New England shore, and several have been seea in the 

 Bay of Fundy. 



