35 x .95.
Data.--Winnebago City, Minn., May 31, 1901. Three eggs. Nest made of a
mass of weeds and rushes floating on water in a swamp. Collector, R. H.
Bullis.

[Illustration 058: Creamy white.]
[Illustration: Black Tern. Noddy. Black Skimmer.]
[Illustration: Deep greenish brown.]
[Illustration: left hand margin.]

Page 57

78. WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. _Hydrochelidon leucoptera._

Range.--Eastern Hemisphere, its addition to American birds being made
because of the accidental appearance of one bird in Wisconsin in 1873.
They nest very abundantly among the lakes and marshes of southern
Europe, placing their eggs the same as the American species, upon masses
of decayed reeds and stalks. They lay three eggs which have a somewhat
brighter appearance than the common Black Terns because of a somewhat
lighter ground color.

79. NODDY. _Anous stolidus._

Range.--Tropical America, north to the Gulf and South Atlantic States.

A peculiar but handsome bird (about fifteen inches long), with a silvery
white head and the rest of the plumage brownish, and the tail rounded.
They breed in abundance on some of the Florida Keys, the West Indies and
the Bahamas. Their nests are made of sticks and grass, and are placed
either in trees or on the ground. They lay but a single egg with a buffy
or cream colored ground spotted with chestnut and lilac. Size 2.00 x
1.30. Atwood's Key, Bahamas, June 1, 1891. Nest made of sticks and
grasses, three feet up a mangrove. Collector, D. P. Ingraham.

[Illustration 059: Greenish buff.]
[Illustration: Buff.]
[Illustration: Noddy.]
[Illustration: deco.]
[Illustration: right hand margin.]

Page 58

SKIMMERS. Family RYNCHOPIDAE

Skimmers are Tern-like birds having a very strangely developed bill. The
lower mandible is much longer than the upper and very thin, the upper
edge being as sharp as the lower. The lower mandible is rounded at the
end while the upper is more pointed. Young Skimmers are said to have
both mandibles of the same length, the abnormal development not
appearing until after flight. Skimmers are very graceful birds, and, as
implied by their name, they skim over the surface of the water, rising
and falling with the waves, and are said to pick up their food by
dropping the lower mandible below the surface, its thin edge cutting the
water like a knife. There are four species of Skimmers, only one of
which is found in North America.

80. BLACK SKIMMER. _Rynchops nigra._

R