BLACK SKIMMER, OR SHEERWATER. 385 



when shut, extend full four inches farther ; breadth, three feet 

 eight inches ; length of the lower mandible, four inches and a 

 half ; of the upper, three inches and a half ; both of a scarlet 

 red, tinged with orange, and ending in black ; the lower 

 extremely thin ; the upper grooved, so as to receive the edge 

 of the lower ; the nostril is large and pervious, placed in a 

 hollow near the base and edge of the upper mandible, where 

 it projects greatly over the lower ; upper part of the head, 

 neck, back, and scapulars, deep black; wings, the same, 

 except the secondaries, which are white on the inner vanes, 

 and also tipt with white; tail, forked, consisting of twelve 

 feathers, the two middle ones about an inch and a half shorter 

 than the exterior ones, all black, broadly edged on both 

 sides with white ; tail-coverts, white on the outer sides, black 

 in the middle ; front, passing down the neck below the eye, 

 throat, breast, and whole lower parts, pure white ; legs and 

 webbed feet, bright scarlet, formed almost exactly like those 

 of the tern. Weight, twelve ounces avoirdupois. The female 

 weighed nine ounces, and measured only sixteen inches in 

 length, and three feet three inches in extent ; the colours and 

 markings were the same as those of the male, with the excep- 

 tion of the tail, which was white, shafted, and broadly centred 

 with black. 



The birds from which these descriptions were taken were 

 shot on the 25th of May, before they had begun to breed. 

 The female contained a great number of eggs, the largest of 

 which were about the size of duckshot; the stomach, in both, 

 was an oblong pouch, ending in a remarkably bard gizzard, 

 curiously puckered or plaited, containing the half-dissolved 

 fragments of the small silver-sides, pieces of shrimps, small 

 crabs, and skippers, or sandfleas. 



On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia, these 

 birds are seen on low sandbars in flocks of several hun- 

 dreds together. There more than twenty nests have been 

 found within the space of a square rod. The young are 



at first so exactly of a colour with the sand on which they 

 vol. 11. 2 B 



