BLACK SKIMMER. 



89 



The birds from which these descriptions were taken were shot 

 on the twenty-fifth 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 duck-shot; the stomach, in both, was an oblong 

 pouch, ending in a remarkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered 

 or plaited, containing the half dissolved fragments of the small 

 silver-sides, pieces of shrimps, small crabs, and skippers, or sand 

 fleas. 



On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia these birds 

 are seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several hundreds 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 color with 

 the sand on which they sit, as to be with difiiculty discovered un- 

 less after a close search. 



The Sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his young are fit 

 for the journey. He is found on various coasts of Asia, as well as 

 America, residing principally near the tropics ; and migrating into 

 the temperate regions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing 

 his young. He is rarely or never seen far out at sea; and must 

 not be mistaken for another bird of the same name, a species of 

 Petrel,^ which is met with on every part of the ocean, skimming 

 with bended wings along the summits, declivities and hollows of 

 the waves. 



* Procellaria Puffinus, the Sheerwater Petrel » 



VOL. VII 



2' 



