R
ight out on the sandy beach, just above high tide, the Black Skimmer risks her set of eggs, and, while apparently unprotected, they are so much the color of the sand and the surrounding shells and seaweed that they would not be noticed unless you were especially looking for them.
The Skimmers are gull-like in form, with long, slender body and long wings, spreading almost three feet. They have a glossy black back, white breast, orange feet, and a most curiously shaped orange bill, which is almost as thin as a knife, the thin edges closing vertically together. This peculiarity has given the bird the name of 'Razor Bill.'
Their graceful and regular flight can hardly be mistaken for that of any other bird. They skim just over the surface of the water, following the contour of the waves, while the lower mandible of their bill, which is longer than the upper, projects below the surface of the water, and when it comes in contact with a small fish, the latter simply slide up the narrow, inclined plane into the Skimmer's mouth.
NEST AND EGGS OF BLACK SKIMMER
Formerly they bred in great numbers along the eastern coast of our Middle and Southern Atlantic states, and only a few years ago were abundant on the New Jersey coast. They have been crowded out, however, by encroaching civilization, and hunted down by the milliners' agents and the egg-collectors. In June, 1898, I found them on Cobb's Island, Virginia, to the number of about two hundred pairs, where, not long ago, they bred in thousands.
As the eggs are entirely exposed, the parents are relieved to some extent from the duty of incubation by the heat of the sun, and as soon as the young hatch they run about like chickens.
GULL-BILLED TERN