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Show : v ...... w..:tu - -i Black Skimmer 1952 National Wildlife Federation Flying in spectacular unison close to the water of some river mouth, bay or harbor is a relatively relative-ly compact flock of good sized birds that appear conspicuously black above and white beneath. They look much like slender-billed gulls but fly more rapidly and or close examination with glasses we may see that the bills are red with black tips. The birds may fly one way across a stretch of water wheel and come back over the same path. On occasion one may dip its bill into the water but continue its flight with- little in- ue lies in providing for some nature na-ture lover an interesting field adventure. terruption. If you are in the proper pro-per place at the proper time the flock being observed may be Black Skimmers. Black Skimmers breed from southern New England to Florida, Texas and south to Central Argentine Ar-gentine on the Atlantic Coast and from Ecuador torChile on the Pacific Pa-cific Coast. They winter from North Carolina southward. Sometimes Some-times the birds are found as far inland as Tennessee and one race lives in central South America. The presence of the birds in the northern nor-thern part of their range may be . erratic. Hurricanes may be re- sponsible for their appearance in regions where they have not been seen before. I The male Black Skimmer is i slightly, larger than the female, i He may be 20 inches long includ-1 includ-1 ing a 6 inch tail with its IV2 inch ' fork. The wing-spread may be to , 50 inches. If the bird can be ob-' ob-' served closely, identification may ' be made simply through the bill. The lower part of the bill is defi- nitely longer than the upper portion por-tion and the whole bill is conspicuously con-spicuously compressed. With a structure like this the bird may skim along the water surface while flying with the bill in position to quickly , pick uo a small fish or other animal that may serve as a meal. Black Skimmers nest in colonies colon-ies on bare ground such as shell beaches or sand flats. They build no nest but lay 3 to 5 eggs in a mere depression. The eggs are 1 23 inches by 1 13 inches, white, greenish or brown and are spoted or blotched with brown, gray or lavender. While the birds nest in colonies, the individual nests are not too close together. Incubation is probably by the female fe-male only and there is but one annual an-nual brood. In the northern part of the range the nesting period is from the middle-of May to the middle of July. The young birds have bills that are more nearly equal in length than are those of the adults and because of this they may pick food from the surface of the ground, a feat that is practically prac-tically impossible for the adults. The birds are themselves inedible in-edible but the fresh eggs are sometimes eaten, in spite of the fact that it is illegal to collect them. It is quite probable that egg collectors have done much to reduce the range of these interesting inter-esting but not economically important im-portant birds. The National Wildlife Wild-life Federation joins with other organizations or-ganizations interested in the protection pro-tection of wildlife in urging the protection of these birds. They do no harm and only probable val- |