450 ItHYNCHOPID^ EHYNCHOPS 



The female is slightly smaller ; a young bird has the forehead 

 slightly streaked with grey and the bill yellowish on its basal, black 

 on its distal half ; in the nestling the bill resembles that of a tern, 

 and is without any of the curious features of the adult. 



Distribution. — The African Skimmer is found throughout the 

 greater part of Africa, where there are suitable rivers, from Senegal 

 to Damaraland on the west side, and from Egypt to the Zambesi 

 on the east. 



Within our limits this bird has not been met with south of the 

 Orange Eiver, though recently the South African Museum received 

 an example from the Eeit River, a tributary of the Vaal in the 

 Kimberley District ; other localities are : Potchefstroom, January 

 (Stenning in S. A. Mus.) ; Ondonga and Lake Ngami (Andersson) 

 and the Zambesi Eiver (Livingstone, Kirk, Holub and Alexander). 



Habits. — The very curious flattened, paper-knife-like bill of this 

 bird at once attracts the attention of the observer, and so far no 

 satisfactory explanation of the use of this remarkable modification 

 has been suggested. The Skimmer is found chiefly about larger 

 rivers, where it passes up and down with fairly powerful flight, 

 spending most of the time so close to the surface of the water that 

 the tip of the projecting lower mandible is immersed, and it thus 

 ploughs up the water with its bill, leaving a trail behind it. 



Usually flocks of from ten to twenty birds are to be seen 

 together in this way in the early morning or late afternoon, or even 

 on moonlight nights, while during the mi^ddle of the day they 

 usually rest on the sandbanks. There is a certain amount of doubt 

 as to what constitutes their food, but Blanford states that he has 

 taken fish from the stomach of the Indian species, which is closely 

 allied to our African one ; generally, however, a yellowish oily fluid 

 is alone found, and it has been suggested that the food of the 

 Skimmer consists entirely of fresh water algae taken from the 

 surface of the water. 



Alexander found this bird breeding in September on a sandbank 

 on the Zambesi near Chicowa ; the nest, which contained three 

 much incubated eggs, was a deep, capacious hole scratched in the 

 sand ; the eggs were stone-coloured, blotched and spotted all over 

 with light umber-brown and underlying markings of purplish-brown. 

 Alexander adds that the flight is steady, the wing-beats being very 

 marked, and the bird skimming the water the whole time ; the note 

 is a loud, harsh "kip," constantly repeated. A nearly similar 

 account of the nesting and other habits of the bird is given by 



