262 
SWIMMERS. 
face of the restless deep would be to them, with the peculiar 
mechanism of their bill, a barren void over which they conse- 
quently never roam, and on whose bosom they rarely ever rest, 
preferring, with the Terns, when satisfied with food, the calm, 
indolent, and surer repose of the isolated shoal left bare by 
the recess of the tide, where, associated in flocks, they are often 
seen to rest from their toilsome and precarious employ. 
The Skimmer continues to this day to make its nest on the 
sands of the New Jersey shore, and thence southward, and is rather 
common on the coast of Virginia and Florida. Fishermen have 
reported that Skimmers nested on Muskegat many years ; but they 
have ceased coming so far north regularly, though occasionally an 
individual makes an excursion along the New England shore, and 
several have been seen in the Bay of Fundy. 
