ELACK SKIMMER. 
91 
greater volume of wing is given, the Shearwater measuring nine- 
teen inches in length, and upwards 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 dipt into and ploughing 
the surface, and the facility with which he procures his food, can- 
not 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 superficial observer, appear so superiorly accommo- 
dated. 
The Shearwater is most frequently seen skimming close along 
shore about the first of the flood, at which time the young try, 
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 highwatei’, par- 
ticular estuaries of those creeks that run up into the salt marshes, 
dipping, with extended neck, their open bills into the water, with 
as much apparent ease as Swallows glean up flics from the surface. 
On examining the stomachs of several of these, shot at the time, 
they contained numbers of a small fish, usually called silver-sulcs, 
from a broad line of a glossy silver color that runs from the gills 
to the tail. The mouths of these inlets almund with this fry, or 
fish, probably feeding on the various matters washed down from 
the marshes. 
The voice of the Shearwater is harsh and screaming, resem- 
bling that of the Tern, but stronger. It flies with a slowly-flap- 
ping 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 ploughs along the surface. It is rarely seen 
swimming on the water ; but frequently rests in lai'gc parties on 
the sand-bars at low water. One of these birds which 1 wounded 
in the wing, and kept in the room beside me for several days, soon 
