BLACK SKIMMER, OR SHEERWATER. 515 
6 
haunts are low sand bars, raised above the reach of the summer 
tides ; and also dry, flut sands on the beach in front of the ocean. On 
such places it usually breeds along the shores of Cape May, in New 
Jersey. On account of the general coldness of the spring there, the 
Sheerwater does not begin to lay until early in June, at which time 
these birds form themselves into small societies, fifteen or twenty pair 
frequently breeding within a few yards of each other. The nest is a 
mere. hollow, formed in the sand, without any other materials. The 
female lays three eggs, almost exactly oval, of a clear white, marked 
with large, round spots of brownish black, and intermixed with others 
of pale Indian ink. These egos measure one inch and three quarters, 
by one inch and a quarter. Half a bushel and more of eggs has 
sometimes been collected trom one sand bar, within the compass of 
half an acre. These eggs have something of a fishy taste, but are 
eaten by many people on the coast. The female sits on them only 
during the night, or in wet and stormy weather. The young remain 
for several weeks before they are able to fly; are fed with great assi- 
duity by both parents; and seem to delight in lying with loosened 
wings, flat on the sand, enjoying its invigorating warmth. They breed 
but once in the season. 
The singular conformation of the bill of this bird has excited much 
surprise ; and some writers, measuring the divine proportions of nature 
by their own contracted standards of conception, in the plenitude of 
their vanity have pronounced it to be “a lame and defective weapon.” 
Such ignorant presumption, or rather impiety, ought to hide its head 
in the dust, on a calm display of the peculiar construction ‘of this sin- 
gular bird, and the wisdom by which it is so admirably adapted to the 
purposes or mode of existence for which it wasintended. ‘The Sheer- 
water is formed for skimming, while on the 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 surpassing, in these respects, any other water-bird with 
which Iam 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 
Sheerwater measuring nineteen inches in length, and upwards of forty- 
four in extent. In short, whoever has attentively exainined this curi- 
ous apparatus, and observed the possessor, with his ample wings, long, 
‘ ending neck, and lower mandible, occasionally dipped into and plough- 
ing the surface, and the facility with which he procures his food, cannot 
hut consider it a mere playful amusement, when compared with the 
