. Our birds in their haunts [microform] : a popular treatise on the birds of eastern North America. Birds; Oiseaux. THE BLACK SKIMMER. 553 is a rude and slight arrangement of weather-beaten and partly decayed rushes, placed on a bit of floating slab, or on one of those compact, floating beds of debris, which be- come anchored in large quantity in the bends of the chan- nels, or among the sedges. On this water-soaked affair, the eggs, 1-3, are placed, some , varying from brown to dark-green in color, spotted and blotched with several shades of dark-brown and neutral. Always dark, they v
. Our birds in their haunts [microform] : a popular treatise on the birds of eastern North America. Birds; Oiseaux. THE BLACK SKIMMER. 553 is a rude and slight arrangement of weather-beaten and partly decayed rushes, placed on a bit of floating slab, or on one of those compact, floating beds of debris, which be- come anchored in large quantity in the bends of the chan- nels, or among the sedges. On this water-soaked affair, the eggs, 1-3, are placed, some , varying from brown to dark-green in color, spotted and blotched with several shades of dark-brown and neutral. Always dark, they vary greatly in form, ground-color and marking. This Tern, some long, winters south of the United States. THE BLACK SKIMMER. On Barnegat Bay, especially about the inlet, I used to see occasionally some half-dozen Black Skimmers {Rhynchops nigra)y flying closely as they skimmed the surface in search of their food of small fry. Length, ; stretch, ; upper parts black; forehead, tips of secondaries, outer webs of tail feathers, white, this species might pass for a large black Tern, were it not for its peculiar bill. The lower man- dible, some long, is as flat as a knife blade, the upper edge fitting into a groove in the upper mandible, which is about an inch shorter. With this strongly specialized mem- ber, it plows the surface of the water at flood-tides, when its food is moit abundant near the surface. Few instances, even in bird-life, can furnish a more obvious evidence of design. Here is a species which, from the length of its wings and neck, the shape of its bill and its mode of flight, is evidently designed to take its food in a peculiar manner —by skimming or plowing the surface for the small fry which approach it in flood-tides. In Florida, when it is found throughout the year, Mr. Maynard reports it as feeding mostly at night or in cloudy weather. Breeding in communities on the sandy beaches, as far north as New Jersey, the eggs, 2 or 3, are placed in
Size: 1036px × 2411px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1884
