No sooner has the dusk of evening arrived than the Skimmers begin to disperse, rise from their place of rest singly, in pairs, or in parties from three or four to eight or ten, apparently according to the degree of hunger they feel, and proceed in different directions along parts of the shores previously known to them, sometimes going up tide-rivers to a considerable distance. They spend the whole night on wing, searching diligently for food. Of this I had ample and satisfactory proof when ascending the St John River in East Florida, in the United States’ Schooner the Spark. The hoarse cries of the Skimmers never ceased more than an hour, so that I could easily know whether they were passing upwards or downwards in the dark. And this happened too when I was at least a hundred miles from the mouth of the river. Being aware, previously to my several visits to the peninsula of the Floridas and other parts of our southern coasts where the Razor-bills are abundant, of the observations made on this species by M. LESSON, I paid all imaginable attention to them, always aided with an excellent glass, in order to find whether or not they fed on bivalve shell-fish found in the shallows of sand-bars and other places at low water; but not in one single instance did I see any such occurrence, and in regard to this matter I agree with WILSON in asserting that, while with us, these birds do not feed on shell-fish. M. LESSON’s words are as follows:—“Quoique le Bec-en-ciseaux semble defavorisé par la forme de son bec, nous acquimes la preuve qu’il savait s’en servir avec avantage et avec la plus grande adresse. Les plages sabloneuses de Peuce sont en effect remplies de Macetres, coquilles bivalves, que la marée descendente laisse presque à sec dans des petites mares; le Bec-en-ciseaux très au fait de cet phenomène, se place aupres de ces mollusques, attend que leur valves s’entrouvrent un peu, et profite aussitot de ce movement en enforçant la lame inferieure et tranchante de son bec entre les valves qui se reserrent. L’oiseaux enleve alors la coquille, la frappe sur la grève, coupe le ligament du mollusque, et peut ensuite avaler celui-ci sans obstacle. Plusieurs fois nous avons été temoins de cet instinct très perfectionné.”