so KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



hatching at a comparatively low temperature, for not 

 only is she handicapped by not having a warm nest in 

 which to brood them^ but she is so fond of playing in the 

 bahny air that she seemingly finds little time to sit. 

 I have never seen a black tern sitting on her nest. Un- 

 doubtedly she does so, but when or how I am imable to 

 say. Audubon, that great authority on birds, tells us 

 that both the male and the female sit and undoubtedly 

 he knew what he was talking about, but certainly neither 

 sits long enough to grow tired. We are told that it 

 takes seventeen days to hatch a black tern's egg. When 

 the eggs are hatched the young birds are such a wonder- 

 ful mixture of brownish black and other neutral colors 

 that it is almost impossible to see them, and, more than 

 that, by the time they are three days old they do not 

 hesitate to slip into the water and swim away and hide 

 under the bank or among the rushes whenever the nest is 

 even slightly disturbed. Their parents feed them mostly 

 on water spiders and other water loving insects, but do 

 not hesitate to add to their bill of fare butterflies, grass- 

 hoppers, dragon-flies, and any other insects that may come 

 handy. The parent birds seem to be in the air almost 

 all the time, flitting and circling about hither and thither 

 and back and forth hunting food. As they can catch 

 that swiftest of insects, the dragon-fly, in a fair race, and 

 as they feed on any of the flying insects, doubtless they 

 have little trouble in picking up an abundance of food. 

 However they do not hesitate to feed on grass and on 

 land-living insects when occasion demands. 



The black tern raises only one brood each summer, 

 tho if the first nest is broken up it will build another. 

 The young develop their wings quickly and are soon 



