88 



BLACK SKIMMER 



quently reposed on its belly, and stretching its neck, rested its 

 long bill on the floor. It spent most of its time in this way, or in 

 dressing and arranging its plumage with its long scissors-like bill, 

 which it seemed to perform with great ease and dexterity. It re- 

 fused every kind of food offered it, and I am persuaded never feeds 

 but when on the wing. As to the reports of its frequenting oys- 

 ter beds, and feeding on these fish, they are contradicted by all 

 those persons with whom I have conversed, whose long residence 

 on the coast where those birds are common, has given them the 

 best opportunities of knowing. 



The Sheerwater is nineteen inches in length, from the point 

 of the bill to the extremity of the tail; the tips of the wings, 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 per- 

 vious, placed in a hollow near the base and edge of the upper man- 

 dible, where it projects greatly over the lower; upper part of the 

 head, neck, back and scapulars deep black; wings the same, ex- 

 cept 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 co- 

 verts 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 avoirdu- 

 pois. The female weighed nine ounces, and measured only sixteen 

 inches in length, and three feet three inches in extent, the colors 

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

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

 with black. 



