Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/860

 834 SHEARWATER SHEBOYGAN bill is about as long as tbe head, slender, com- pressed near the end and grooved obliquely on the sides, with strong, curved, and acute tip ; nostrils basal, with two distinct tubes, side by side ; wings very long and pointed, the first quill longest ; tail short and rounded ; tarsi as long as middle toe and compressed ; toes long and united by a full web ; in some there is a straight claw in place of a hind toe. They are moderate-sized, found in both hemispheres, and are met with at sea, often many hundred miles from land, even in the most tempestuous weather, skimming and running over the waves in search of food ; they are light and graceful swimmers, good divers, and pat the surface of the water with their feet like the petrels ; they are rapid fliers, and can keep on the wing all day, resting on the ocean if need be at night ; they breed in company, in burrows made by themselves or small mammals ; they lay only one egg, and the young are covered with long down. The greater shearwater (P. major, Fa- ber) is about 20 in. long and 45 in. in alar ex- tent ; the upper plumage is brownish ash, the Greater Shearwater (I'urtiuus major). lower grayish white; lower back and upper tail coverts dark brown ; primaries and tail brownish black, the feathers of the wings with white on the inner webs ; bill yellowish green, with dark tip; tarsi and feet yellow. This species is found on the European side of the Atlantic, and ranges on the American coast from the gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida. It mingles with the fulmars, and on being ap- proached ejects from the nostrils an oily sub- stance ; on land, where it goes only to breed, it walks as well as a duck. The food consists of fishes, crustaceans, algee, and other marine products, and floating animal substances. The Manx shearwater (P. Anglorum, Ray) is 15 in. long and 32 in. in alar extent; the upper plumage is black, the under white, bill brown- ish black, legs and feet dull orange. It is abundant on the Orkney and other northern islands, and on the American coast from New Jersey to Labrador ; it breeds in rabbit bur- rows in the Orkneys between March and Au- gust, and all the rest of the year is at sea; the young are fat, and the natives salt and eat them. Some writers give the name shear- water to the genus rhynchops. (See SKIMMER.) SHEATHBILL (chionis, Forst.), a genus placed by Gray among the gallinaceous birds, but by Latham, Cuvier, and Van der Hoeven among the waders. The bill is short, strong, com- pressed toward the tip, the culmen curved, and the base covered with a movable horny sub- stance, more or less concealing the nostrils ; base of bill and cheeks covered with a warty naked skin; wings moderate, the second quill the longest, and the bend with a blunt knob ; tail moderate and even ; tarsi short, strong, covered with small rough scales ; toes moder- ately strong, with transverse scales, the outer united to the middle one by a membrane at the base, and the hind one small, elevated, and on one side ; claws short and blunt. The white sheathbill (<7. alba, Forst.) is from 15 to 18 in. long ; the plumage is pure white, the bill and knob of wing black ; the legs bare a little above the joint, and reddish. It is found in New Zealand, Australia, and the islands of the Antarctic ocean, where it frequents the shores in flocks, searching for food, which consists of mollusks, sea weeds, and animal remains; numbers have sometimes been seen by south- ern voyagers at a great distance from land, resting on icebergs and feeding on refuse mat- ters. The flight is like that of the pigeon; the flesh is said to be excellent. With the general appearance of a gallinaceous bird, the sheathbill has the habits of a wader. SHKBA, or S*bt, in ancient geography, the capital city of the Sabroans in 'Arabia Felix. Its exact site is unknown. The territory of the Sabseans lay near the Red sea, and ran up to the borders of the desert. They were, part- ly at least, Semitic tribes, monarchically gov- erned, the first child born in a certain number of noble families after the accession of a mon- arch being the presumptive heir to the throne. They held for centuries the keys of the com- merce between Europe and India, and Egypt and Syria, produced and sold frankincense and aromatics, and were reputed for their opulence and luxury among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. A queen of Sheba was attracted by the fame of Solomon to visit Jerusalem (1 Kings x. 1-18). The Sabseans were ultimately sub- jected by the Himyarites. The traveller Nie- buhr was the first to assert that the country could never have produced gold, and that some of its finest spices and perfumes were proba- bly imported. The name of Saba was given by classical writers to other cities both on the Arabian and Ethiopian sides of the Red sea. In the Hebrew Scriptures, in contradistinc- tion from the Arabian Sheba, the region of the Ethiopian Sabseans is called Seba. SHEBOYGAN, an E. county of Wisconsin, bor- dering on Lake Michigan, drained by Sheboy- gan river and its tributaries, and by tributaries of Milwaukee river; area, 500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 81,749. It is traversed by several rail- roads. The chief productions in 1870 were