
Or Bt ares: oe 
” obliged to fkim the furface of the water, rippling: 
it with its lower mandible, to catch the fith as it 
flies, Though its wings be long its flight is 
flow, that it may the better fee the little fith on 
which it preys. In {tormy weather it feeks the 
_ fhore, and lives on, oyfters and other fhell fith, 
_ which, from the form of its bill, it can readily | 
open. Se 
Skimmers are found in the American Seas: 
their backs are black or dufky, their breafts and 
_-ftomachs white, and the bill 1 is red at the bafe: 
a, 
A L L the Birds which we have been treading 
about in ‘this vont, belong to the order 
of the Anferes, : : 
- The general character of this order ; is, that the 
eik is employed, in fome genera, as a kind of 
: cic or filter to ftrain the water and ftop the food; 
it's fmooth, covered with an epidermis, that is 
| fain, and in many {pecies wideft at the end. | 
“The feet are webbed for fwimming ; ; the thighs 
are Aattened and ey: 
The 
