SKIMMERS 35 



On the east point of Petit Bois Island is a colony of 40 or 50 

 of these birds. I visited the colony July 4, 1913, and found 

 that the birds had been molested so that only about a dozen 

 nests contained eggs and only two held full sets of four eggs. 

 Holt found a similar condition there the last week in July, 

 about 20 nests containing eggs or young, but only two contain- 

 ing as many as 3 eggs. Peters found skimmers numerous 

 there, June 1 to 5, 1914, at which time nesting had not begun. 

 Outsell found them fairly common at Bayou Labatre late in 

 July and in August, 1911, and on the east point of Petit Bois 

 Island and the west point of Dauphin Island he found nesting 

 colonies. July 27, on Petit Bois, he observed several downy 

 young, several sets of eggs, and a young bird hardly able to 

 fly. On August 29, at the same place, both eggs and downy 

 young were observed. 



General habits. — This curious bird is remarkable for the 

 shape of its bill, the lower mandible being much longer than 

 the upper and compressed to knifelike thinness. The func- 

 tion of this peculiar development is apparently unknown, but 

 doubtless it serves the bird in some way in obtaining its food. 

 Many writers have described the bird's habit of "skimming" 

 close to the surface of the water, occasionally dipping the bill 

 into the water and catching small fishes or other food. 



Quite recently, another method of feeding has been de- 

 scribed by Stanley C. Arthur, who says that on the coast of 

 Louisiana this bird secures its food while standing in shallow 

 water, picking up small fishes "with straight downward mo- 

 tions of the mandibles."! Mr. Arthur attempts to discredit 

 the statements of Audubon and other naturalists as to the 

 method of feeding on the wing, but this habit is verified by 

 Dr. Witmer Stone, who observed it on the New Jersey coast 

 in July, 1921,* and by Bent in his recent v/ork on gulls and 

 terns, where it is decribed in some detail.t While I have 

 never seen the skimmer feeding, I have many times observed 

 the birds in large flocks on the Alabama coast resting quietly 

 on sand bars in close, regular ranks like soldiers, or cutting 

 circles in the air. They are very graceful in flight, the whole 



tArthur, S. C, The Auk, vol. 88, p. 871, 1921. 



*Stone, W., The Auk, vol. 88, p. 596, 1921. 



tBent, A. C, Bull. 118, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 316, 1921. 



