382 BLACK SKIMMER, OR SHEERWATER. 



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 eggs measure one inch and 

 three-quarters, by one inch and a quarter. Half a bushel and 

 more of eggs have sometimes been collected from one sandbar, 

 within the compass of half an acre. These eggs have some- 

 thing 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 assiduity 

 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 confirmation of the bill of this bird has ex- 

 cited 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 pre- 

 sumption, or rather impiety, ought to hide its head in the 

 dust on a calm display of the peculiar construction of this 



de mer, des bandes telleruent epaisses qu'il resemblait a des longues 

 echarpes noires et mobiles qui obscurcissaient le ciel depuis les rives de 

 Penco jusqu' a l'ile de Quiriqtiine, dans un espace de douze milles. 

 Quoique le bec-en-ciseaux semble d^favorise par la forme de son bee, 

 nous aquimes la preuve qu'il savait s'en servir avec avantage et avec le 

 plus grande adresse. Les plages sablonneuses de Penco sont en effet 

 remplies de Mactres, coquilles bivalves, que la maree decendente laisse 

 presque a sec dans des petites mares ; le bec-en-ciseaux tres au fait de 

 ce pbenomene, se place aupres de ces mollusques, attend que leur valve 

 sent ouvre un peu, et profite aussitot de ce mouvement en ecforcant la 

 lame inferieure, et trancliante de son bee entre les valves qui se refer- 

 ment. L'oiseaux enleve alors la coquille, la frappe sur la greve, coupe 

 le ligament du molusque, et peut ensuite avaler celui-ci sans obstacle. 

 Plusieurs fois nous avons et<2 temoins de cet instinct tres perfec- 

 tionne." — Ed. 



