BLACK SKIMMER. 35 



from the gills to the tail. The mouths of these inlets abound with this 

 fry, or fish, probably feeding on the various matters washed down from 

 the marshes. 



The voice of the Shearwater is harsh and screaming, resembling that 

 of the Tern, but stronger. It flies with a slowly flapping flight, dipping 

 occasionally, with steady expanded wings, and bended neck, its lower 

 mandible into the sea, and with open mouth receiving its food as it 

 ploughs along the surface. It is rarely seen swimming on the water ; 

 but frequently rests in large parties on the sand-bars at low water. One 

 of these birds which I wounded in the wing, and kept in the room beside 

 me for several days, soon became tame and even familiar. It generally 

 stood with its legs erect, its body horizontal, and its neck rather ex- 

 tended. It frequently reposed on its belly, and stretching its neck, 

 rested its long bill on the floor. It spent most of its time in this way, 

 or in dressing and arranging its plumage, with its long scissors-like bill, 

 which it seemed to perform with great ease and dexterity. It refused 

 every kind of food ofi"ered it, and I am persuaded never feeds but when 

 on the wing. As to the reports of its frequenting oyster beds, and 

 feeding on these fish, they are contradicted by all those persons with 

 whom I have conversed, whose long residence on the coast, where 

 those birds are common, has given them the best opportunities of 

 knowing. 



The Shearwater is nineteen inches in length, from the point of the 

 bill to the extremity of the tail, the tips of the wings, when shut, extend 

 full four inches farther ; breadth three feet eight inches ; length of the 

 lower mandible four inches and a half, of the upper three inches and a 

 half, both of a scarlet red, tinged with orange, and ending with black ; 

 the lower extremely thin, the upper grooved so as to receive the edge 

 of the lower ; the nostril is large and pervious, placed in a hollow near 

 the base and edge of the upper mandible, where it projects greatly over 

 the lower ; upper part of the head, neck, back and scapulars, deep 

 black ; wings the same, except the secondaries, which are white on the 

 inner vanes, and also tipped with white ; tail forked, consisting of twelve 

 feathers, the two middle ones about an inch and a half shorter than the 

 exterior ones, all black, broadly edged on both sides with white ; tail- 

 coverts white on the outer sides, black in the middle ; front, passing 

 down the neck below the eye, throat, breast, and whole lower parts, 

 pure white ; legs and webbed feet bright scarlet, formed almost exactly 

 like those of the Tern. Weight twelve ounces avoirdupois. The female 

 weighed nine ounces, and measured only sixteen inches in length, and 

 three feet three inches in extent, the colors and markings were the same 

 as those of the male, with the exception of the tail, which was white, 

 shafted and broadly centered with black. 



The birds from which these descriptions were taken, were shot on the 



