The Black Skimmer (Rhynchops nigra) in New England. •—The 
only record of this species occurring in New England was given by Lins- 
ley, in 1843, in his Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut; but since 
then writers have considered that it was given without sufficient proof. 
Under date of August 20, 1879, Mr. Charles I. Goodale writes me that 
three specimens of the Black Skimmer were shot at Sandwich, Cape Cod, 
Mass., on the 19th inst., and that the next day a fourth specimen was killed 
off Pettock’s Island, Boston Harbor, which latter bird he has preserved. 
My friend, Mr. Geo. A. Boardman, of Milltown, St. Stephens, N. B., 
under date of 31st August, 1879, writes me that there had been a flight 
of Skimmers in his locality,. and that seven specimens had been killed 
off Grand Menan and Campobello Island, and that they were seen at St. 
Andrews, at the head of Passamaquoddy Bay. On the same date, while 
sailing some ten miles from shore off Saco, Maine, I saw a single bird, un¬ 
doubtedly of this species, flying rapidly along the surface of the water. 
Is it not a little strange that a bird that has escaped our observations for 
years should appear so suddenly, and at various points along the coast 
from Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy ? — Kuthven Deane, Cambridge, 
Mass. Bull N. O. C. I, Oct. , 1879. P. IVJ . 
It was at this time that the Black Skimmers were taken near 
Eastport, and recorded in the Bulletin (Vol. IV, p. 242). The occurrence 
of all these Southern species so far from their usual range must be attrib¬ 
uted to their having been blown north by a southerly storm, which com¬ 
menced as far south as the West Indies about the 16th of August, and 
raged along the entire coast, reaching the Maine shore two days later. 
The storm was particularly severe off the Virginia coast, and Mr. William 
Brewster, who collected on Cobb’s Island, off Norfolk, in September, in¬ 
forms me that the scarcity of a number of species which are generally com¬ 
mon there was caused by their having been blown^north by the gale of 
the previous month. a ^ / • / 
/l. Z/f . 
BulLN.O.C. 5, Ja»., 1880, p, (,//. 
The Black Skimmer in Massachusetts. — Prof. Baird, in a letter 
dated August 23, informs me that, having occasion to visit Wood’s Holl 
(Falmouth, Mass.) a few days previous, he saw there a young example of 
Rynchops nigra, which had been shot at that place on the 19th of that 
month, by a son of Rev. Dr. Hiram Carleton, an Episcopal minister resi¬ 
dent in the village. This example is to be presented to the New Eng¬ 
land Collection of the Boston Society of Natural History. — T. M. 
Brewer, Boston, Mass. Bali. N. 0.0. 4 , Oot. , 1879, p 2 VJ . 
Rhynchops nigra. — An early Record for the Massachusetts 
Coast. — Champlain,* while cruising along the sandy shores of Cape 
Cod on a voyage of exploration in July, 1605 , makes mention of the 
Black Skimmer, as his narration, p. 87 , shows. 
“ We saw also a sea-bird with a black beak, the upper part slightly 
aquiline, four inches long and in the form of a lancet; namely, the 
lower part representing the handle and the upper the blade, which is 
thin, sharp on both sides, and shorter by a third than the other; which 
Circumstance is a matter of astonishment to many persons, who cannot 
comprehend how it is'possible for this bird to eat with such a beak. 
It is of the size of a pigeon, the wings being very long in proportion to 
the body, the tail short,_ as also the legs, which are red; the feet being 
small and flat. The plumage on the upper part is gray-brown, and on 
the under part pure white. They go always in flocks along the sea¬ 
shore, like the pigeons with us.” 
That this species was found on our shores early in this century is 
proved by the older natives of the Cape telling me, since the bird’s recent 
occurrence, that “them cutwater or shearwater birds used to be with us 
summer times.” Also Mr. Brewster informs me that Nantucket fishermen 
assert that Skimmers bred on Muskegat Island fifty years ago. — H. A. 
Purdie, Ne - wton , Mass . 
* Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, translated from the French by Charles Pomeroy 
Otis, Ph.D., with historical illustrations, and a Memoir, by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter A 
M. Vol. II, 1604-1610, Boston, published by Prince Society, 1878. 
