RYNCHOPS. 49 



black. Winter adult : Similar as to plumage, but the black more brownish, 

 and interrupted by a white collar across hind-neck. Young: Above light 

 buff, each feather with a central spot of black, these largest on scapulars ; 

 lores and beneath eye uniform pale buff ; lower parts white. Downy young : 

 Above pale grayish buff, irregularly and sparsely mottled with blackish ; lower 

 parts plain white. (Lower mandible not longer than upper in very young 

 birds.) Length 17.00-20.00, wing 14.75-15.75, tail 5.50 (forked for about 

 1.20), culmen 2.20-2.80, lower mandible 2.90^4.10. Nest a depression in sand, 

 near sea-shore. Eggs 2-5, 1.74 X 1-32, ovate, or short-ovate, white, buffy 

 white, or pale buff, marked with large bold spots of rich dark or deep brown, 

 and smaller, fainter spots of purplish gray. Sab. Sea-coast of warmer parts 

 of America ; on the Atlantic side, north, regularly, to New Jersey, casually 



to Nova Scotia 80. R. nigra Linn. Black Skimmer. 



Secondaries without white tips ; tail dusky, the feathers with paler edges ; under 

 wing-coverts brownish gray; otherwise similar to JR. nigra, but averaging 

 larger, with longer bill and wing especially. Sab. Coasts of South America 

 (Peru; Demerara, etc.). 



R. melanura Boie. Black-tailed Skimmer. 1 



1 Rynchops melanurue " Boie," Swaims. Anim. in Menag. 1838, 340. 



