VERTEBRATA. 
Manks Shearwater, P. Anglorum, is fourteen inches long; found in tlie Atlantic, on the coasts 
of Europe and North America. The Dusky Shearwater, P. ohscurus ; the Soott Shear- 
water, P . fuliginosus ; and the Cinereous Petrel, P. cinereus, are other American species. 
Genus EHYNCHOPS : Ph]/nckops, includes the Black Skimmer, P. nigra; it is a bird of 
passage in the United States, appearing on our coasts in May. It breeds along the shores of Cape 
May and New Jersey, the nest consisting of a depression in the sand ; the eggs are usually three. 
" The singular conformation of the bill of this bird," says Wilson, in a striking passage, " has ex- 
cited much surprise ; and some writers, measuring the divine proportions of nature by their own 
contracted standards of conception, in the plentitude of their vanity, have pronounced it to be ' a 
lame and defective weapon.' Such ignorant presumption, or rather impiety, ought to hide its 
head in the dust, on a calm display of the peculiar construction of this singular bird, and the 
wisdom by which it is so admirably adapted to the purposes or mode of existence for which it was 
intended. The Shearwater is formed for skimming, while on the wing, the surface of the sea for 
its food, which consists of small fish, shrimps, young fry, &c., whose usual haunts ai'e near the 
shore and toward the surface. That the lower mandible, Avhen dipped into and cleaving the 
water, might not retard the bird's way, it is thinned and sharpened like the blade of a knife ; the 
upper mandible, being at such times elevated above water, is curtailed in its length, as being less 
necessary, but tapering gradually to a point, that, on shutting, it may offer less opposition. To 
prevent inconvenience from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to the mere opening 
of the gullet, which, indeed, prevents mastication taking place ; but the stomach, or gizzard, to 
which this business is solely allotted, is of imcomraon hardness, strength, and muscularity, far sur- 
passing, in these respects, any other water-bird with which I am acquainted. To all these is 
added a vast expansion of wing, to enable the bird to sail with sufficient celerity, W'hile dipping 
in the water. The general proportion of the length of our swiftest hawks and swallow^s to their 
breadth, is as one to two ; but in the present case, as there is not only the resistance of the air, 
but also that of the water, to overcome, a still greater volume of wing is given, the Shearwater 
measuring nineteen inches in length, and upward of forty-four in extent. In short, whoever has 
attentively examined this curious apparatus, and observed the possessor, with his ample wings, 
long, bending neck, and lower mandible, occasionally dipped into and plowing the surface, and 
the facility with which he procures his food, cannot but consider it a mere playful amusement, 
when compared with the dashing immersions of the tern, the gull, or the fish-hawk, who, to the su- 
perficial observer, appear so superiorly accommodated. 
" The Shearwater is most frequently seen skimming close along shore about the first of the 
tiood, at which time the young fry, shrimp, &c., are most abundant in such places. There are 
also numerous inlets among the low islands between the sea-beach and main-land of Cape May, 
where I have observed the Shearwaters, eight or ten in company, passing and repassing, at high 
water, particular estuaries of those creeks that run up into the salt marshes, dipping, with ex- 
tended neck, their open bills into the water, with as much apparent ease as swallows glean up 
flies from the surface. On examining the stomachs of several of these, shot at the time, they con- 
tained numbers of a small fish, usually called silver-sides, from a broad line of a glossy silver color 
that runs from the gills to the tail. The mouths of these inlets abound with this fry or fish, prob- 
ably feeding on the various matters washed down from the marshes. 
"The voice of the Shearwater is harsh and screaming, resembling that of the Tern, but 
stronger. It flies with a slowly-flapping flight, dipping, occasionally, with steady, expanded wings 
and bended neck, its lower mandible into the sea, and with open mouth receiving its food as it 
plows along the surface. It is rarely seen swimming on the water ; but frequently rests in large 
parties on the sand-bars at low watei". One of these birds, which I wounded in the wing, and 
kept in the room beside me for several days, soon became tame, and even familiar. It generally 
stood with its legs erect, its body horizontal, and its neck rather extended. It frequently 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 refused every kind of food offered it, and I am per- 
suaded never feeds but when on the wing." 
