150 
RHYNCHOPS NIGRA. 
erect, its body horizontal, and its neck rather extended. 
It frequently reposed on its belly, and, stretching 1 its 
neck, rested its long* bill on the floor. It spent most of 
its time in this way, or in dressing 1 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 persuaded, 
never feeds but when on the wing. As to the reports 
of its frequenting oyster 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 these 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 pervious, placed in 
a hollow near the base and edge of the upper mandible, 
where it projects greatly over the lower; upper part 
of the head, neck, back, and scapulars, deep black ; 
wings, the same, except 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-coverts, 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 
avoirdupois. The female 'weighed nine ounces, and 
measured only sixteen inches in length, and three feet 
three inches in extent ; the colours and markings were 
the same as those of the male, with the exception of 
