34 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



before dark they form a great dense cloud over the point and 

 surrounding waters." 



General habits. — In flight the black tern is extremely 

 buoyant but rather wavering and uncertain, like the night- 

 hawk or the swallows. It rarely plunges into the water for 

 its food, as do most of the terns, but catches insects in the 

 air and gleans food from the surface of the water and from 

 the reeds and rushes of the marshes. Its call note is described 

 by Bent as "a short, sharp, metallic 'krik.' When much ex- 

 cited this is prolonged into a shrill scream like 'kreek' or 

 'craik,' given with ear-piercing vehemence when attacking an 

 intruder near its nest."* 



Food habits. — A study of the food habits of this species 

 by W. L. McAtee shows it to be a useful bird. He says that 

 the bird preys upon no food fishes, as far as known, but does 

 feed extensively upon such fish enemies as dragonfly nymphs, 

 dytiscid beetles, and crawfishes, and takes a great variety of 

 insects, including some of economic importance, as the moth 

 of the cotton boUworm and the fall army worm, click beetles 

 (adults of wire worms), weevils, and grasshoppers.f 



SKIMMERS: Family Rynchopidae. 



BLACK SKIMMER; "SHEARWATER"; RAZOR-BILL; 

 SCISSOR-BILL : Rynckops nigra Linnaeus. 



State records. — The black skimmer, more often known in 

 Alabama as "shearwater" or "scissor-bill," is common along 

 the coast beaches both in summer and winter. At the west 

 point of Dauphin Island, May 19, 1911, I saw about 10 skim- 

 mers, mainly in i>airs, flying along the edge of the beach. 

 At times they were wary, and again would fly directly over 

 my head, screaming loudly. At the mouth of Perdido Bay, 

 Outsell found skimmers fairly common in September, 1911; 

 and on January 27, 1912, at the same place, I observed a 

 flock of about 30 standing on a sandbar on the Gulf shore. 

 In Mississippi Sound, near Bayou Labatre, flocks of 100 to 200 

 were seen on November 16 and 20, 1915, either resting on 

 mud bars or flying about in a compact flock over the flats. 



»Bcnt, A. C, Bull. 113, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 297, 1921. 



tMcAtee, V/. L.. Fanners' Bull. 497, U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 22, Bepr. 1917. 



