96 SKIMMER. 



GENUS CII._ SKIMMER. 



Black Skimmer || A Var. 



1 HE bill in this Genus is greatly compressed, the lower mandible 

 much longer than the upper, and truncated at the end. 



Nostrils linear, near the edge, pervious. 



Feet with four toes, palmated, slender, the hind toe very small. 



Tail forked. 



BLACK SKIMMER. -Pl. clxxiii. 



Rhynchops nigra, Ind. Orn. ii. 802. Lin. i. 228. Gm. Lin.'u 611. Borowsk. iii. 26. 



t. 36. Bartr. Tr. 293. Nat: Misc. pl. 325. 

 Rygchopsalia, Bris. vi. 223. t. 21, 2. Id. 8vo. ii. 421. Gerin. v. t. 548. 

 Avis Maderaspatana major Novaculae facie, Rait, 194, 5. t. 1. f. 5. 



Carolinensis rostro cultriformi, Pet'w. Gaz. t. 76. f. 2. — the bill. Edw. pl. 281. 



Plotus rostro couico inseqnali, Klein, Av. 142. 2. 



Le Bee en Ciseaux, Buf. viii. 454. pl. 36. PL enl. 357. 



Coupeur d'Eau, Descr. Surin. \\. 291. Voy. d'Azara, iv. No. 408. 



Bee de hache, ou Pied rouge, Hist. Louis, ii. 117. 



Der Scheerenschnabel, Schmid, Fog. p. 138. t. 121. 



Cutwater, Catesb. Car. i. pl. 90. 



Black Skimmer, Gen. Syn. vi. 347. pl. in frontisp. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 445. View of 



Hindoost. ii. p. 42. Amer. Orn. vii. 85. pl. 60. f. 4. 



SIZE of the Black Guillemot ; length eighteen inches, breadth 

 three feet. The bill is of a singular structure, the upper mandible 

 being above an inch shorter than the under, which is four inches 

 and a half long; both are greatly compressed on the sides, and both 

 sharp on the edges, but the upper is bifid beneath, so as to admit of 

 the under one entering the shallow groove, like a razor shutting into 

 its handle ; the base of the bill is red, the rest black, and on the 

 sides are several furrows; the forehead, chin, and all the under parts 

 are white; the rest of the head, and upper parts of the body and 

 wings dusky black ; across the latter a bar of white ; the tail forked, 



