34 BLACK SKIMMER. 



instrument."* Such ignorant presumption, or rather impiety, ought to 

 hide its head in the dust on a calm display of the peculiar construction 

 of this singular bird, and the wisdom by which it is so admirably adapted 

 to the purposes, or mode of existence, for which it was intended. The 

 Shearwater is formed for skimming, while on wing, the surface of the 

 sea for its food, which consists of small fish, shrimps, young fry, &c., 

 whose usual haunts are near the shore, and towards the surface. That 

 the lower mandible, when dipped into and cleaving the water, might not 

 retard the bird's way, it is thinned and sharpened like the blade of a 

 knife ; the upper mandible being at such times elevated above water, is 

 curtailed in its length, as being less necessary, but tapering gradually 

 to a point, that, on shutting, it may offer less opposition. To prevent 

 inconvenience from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to 

 the mere opening of the gullet, which indeed prevents mastication taking 

 place there ; but the stomach, or gizzard, to which this business is solely 

 allotted, is of uncommon hardness, strength and muscularity, far sur- 

 passing, in these respects, any other water bird with which I acquainted. 

 To all these is added a vast expansion of wing, to enable the bird to 

 sail with sufficient celerity while dipping in the water. The general 

 proportion of the length of our swiftest Hawks and Swallows, to their 

 breadth, is as one to two ; but in the present case, as there is not only 

 the resistance of the air, but also that of the water, to overcome, a still 

 greater volume of wing is given, the Shearwater measuring nineteen 

 inches in length, and upwards of forty-four in extent. In short, who- 

 ever has attentively examined this curious apparatus, and observed the 

 possessor with his ample wings, long bending neck, and lower mandible 

 occasionally dipped into, and ploughing, the surface, and the facility 

 with which he procures his food, cannot but consider it a mere playful 

 amusement, when compared with the dashing immersions of the Tern, 

 the Gull, or the Fish-Hawk, who, to the superficial observer, appear so 

 superiorly accommodated. 



The Shearwater is most frequently seen skimming close along shore, 

 about the first of the flood, at which time the young fry, shrimp, &c., 

 are most abundant in such places. There are also numerous inlets, 

 among the low islands between the sea beach and main land of Cape 

 May, where I have observed the Shearwaters, eight or ten in company, 

 passing and repassing at high-water particular estuaries of those creeks 

 that run up into the salt marshes, dipping, with extended neck, their 

 open bills into the water, with as much apparent ease as Swallows glean 

 up flies from the surface. On examining the stomachs of several of 

 these, shot at the time, they contained numbers of a small fish, usually 

 called silver-sides, from a broad line of a glossy silver color that runs 



* Vide Buffon. 



