The Skimmer forms no other nest than a slight hollow in the sand. The eggs, I believe, are always three, and measure an inch and three quarters in length, an inch and three-eighths in breadth. As if to be assimilated to the colours of the birds themselves, they have a pure white ground, largely patched or blotched with black or very dark umber, with here and there a large spot of a light purplish tint. They are as good to eat as those of most Gulls, but inferior to the eggs of Plovers and other birds of that tribe. The young are clumsy, much of the same colour as the sand on which they lie, and are not able to fly until about six weeks, when you now perceive their resemblance to their parents. They are fed at first by the regurgitation of the finely macerated contents of the gullets of the old birds, and ultimately pick up the shrimps, prawns, small crabs, and fishes dropped before them. As soon as they are able to walk about, they cluster together in the manner of the young of the Common Gannet, and it is really marvellous how the parents can distinguish them individually on such occasions. This bird walks in the manner of the Terns, with short steps, and the tail slightly elevated. When gorged and fatigued, both old and young birds are wont to lie flat on the sand, and extend their bills before them; and when thus reposing in fancied security, may sometimes be slaughtered in great numbers by the single discharge of a gun. When shot at while on wing, and brought to the water, they merely float, and are easily secured. If the sportsman is desirous of obtaining more, he may easily do so, as others pass in full clamour close over the wounded bird. RHYNCHOPS NIGRA, _Linn._ Syst Nat. vol i. p. 228.—_Lath._ Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 802.—_Ch. Bonaparte_, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 352. BLACK SKIMMER, or SHEAR-WATER, RHYNCHOPS NIGRA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 85, pl. 60, fig. 4.—_Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p. 264. Adult Male. Plate CCCXXIII. Bill longer than the head, nearly straight, tetragonal at the base, suddenly extremely compressed, and continuing so to the end. Upper mandible much shorter than the lower, its dorsal outline very slightly convex, its ridge sharp, the sides erect, more or less convex, the edges approximated so as to leave merely a very narrow groove between them; the tip a little rounded when viewed laterally. Nasal groove rather short, narrow near the margin; nostrils linear-oblong, sub-basal in the soft membrane. Lower mandible with the angle extremely short, the dorsal outline straight or slightly decurved, the sides erect, the edges united into a very thin blade which fits into the narrow groove of the upper mandible, the tip rounded or abrupt when viewed laterally.