Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/91

Rh front; neck rather short, thick; body short, ovate. Feet short, moderately- stout; tibia bare below, with narrow transverse scutella before and behind; tarsus short, anteriorly covered with broad scutella; toes very small, the first extremely short and free, unless at the base; middle toe slightly longer than outer; anterior toes united by deeply emarginate webs. Claws long, com- pressed, slightly arched, rather obtuse. Plumage moderately full, soft, and blended; wings extremely long, and very narrow; primary quills excessively long, the first longest; secondaries short. Tail of moderate length, deeply forked, of twelve feathers. Tongue short, triangular, tapering; oesophagus wide; stomach rather small, oblong, muscular, the cuticular lining dense, with nine broad longitudinal rugEe; intestine rather long, narrow; coeca very small; cloaca large, globular; the digestive organs are precisely similar to those of the Terns and smaller Gulls. BLACK SKIMMER OR RAZOR-BILLED SHEARWATER.

^Rhynchops nigra, Linn.

PLATE CCCCXXVIII.— Male.

This bird, one of the most singularly endowed by nature, is a constant. resident on all the sandy and marshy shores of our more southern States, from South Carolina to the Sabine river, and doubtless also in Texas, where I found it quite abundant in the beginning of spring. At this season parties of Black Skimmers extend their movements eastward as far as the sands of Long Island, beyond which however I have not seen them. Indeed in Mas- sachusetts and Maine this bird is known only to such navigators as have observed it in the southern and tropical regions.

To study its habits therefore, the naturalist must seek the extensive sand- bars, estuaries, and mouths of the rivers of our Southern States, and enter the sinuous bayous intersecting the broad marshes along their coasts. There, during the warm sunshine of the winter days, you will see thousands of Skimmers, covered as it were with their gloomy mantles, peaceably lying beside each other, and so crowded together as to present to your eye the appearance of an immense black pall accidentally spread on the sand. Such