SKIMMER, a name applied- to several species of the genus /lip/chaps of the gull ' family (Lridte, q.v.). The genus has the following characteristics: Bill longer than the head, nearly-or quite straight, compressed to the end. Lower mandible nearly one inch longer than the upper, and square at the point. , Upper mandible grooved for the reception of the lower. The mechanism is remarkable, being adapted to Cut like scissors and the bird is sometimes called seissar-ltill. The wings are very long and nar row, With the first quill• the longest; tail moderate and forked; 'feet moderately long and slender, with an indented web; hind toe elevated, and claws•curved and sharp. B. nerd is the becen-eiseaux, and coupeur d' eau of the French; shear-water, cut-water, skimmer, and black skimmer of the United States, and the piscator of the Chilians. The male is about 19 in. long; closed wings extend 4 in. beyond the tail; alar expansion, 44 inches. Length of the 'lower mandible four and a half inches; upper, three and a half; both mandible red, tinged with orange and tipped with black. Upper part of the head, neck and back, and scapulars black; wings the same except the secondaries, which are white on the inner vanes, and also tipped with white. The forked tail having black
feathers, broadly edged on either side with white; tail coverts white on .the outer sides, black in the middle, front, cheeks, neck below the eye, throat, breast, and all the lower parts white_ Legs and webbed feet red. The female is 16 in. long, with 39 in. wing expansion; plumage similar to that of the male, except. the tail, which is white land broadly centered wills black. Mr. Nuttall says that it is a bird of passage in the -United Slates, appearing in New Jersey,, its most northern limit as he thinks, fDom its tropical quarters in early May; and 1:e bblieves it passes the breeding season along the whole of the southern coast of the United States. Their nests have been found along the shores of cape May about the beginning of June. They arc made by scratching a hollow in the sand. There are usually three eggs, which arc nearly two inches long by one in diameter; white with brown blotches, some of them large. Sometimes a bushel of eggs arc collected from a single sand bar.