3IO THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Family LARIDyE. Genus Hydrockelidon. 



Sub-family STERNIN^. 



WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 



Hydrochelidon leucoptera {Meisner and Schinz). 



(British : Rare abnormal spring and autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, latter end of May, and in 



June. 



Breeding area : Southern Palaearctic region, and 

 possibly extreme north-eastern Ethiopian region. The 

 White-winged Black Tern breeds in Poland, and in 

 various suitable localities in Central and Southern 

 Europe, including Sicily, Northern Italy, the delta of 

 the Rhone, Hungary, and Southern Russia. South of 

 the Mediterranean it is said to breed in Algeria and 

 Lower Egypt. Eastward it breeds in suitable districts 

 in the Caucasus, and may do so in Turkestan. It also 

 breeds throughout the extreme southern districts of 

 Siberia to the Amoor, southwards to Northern China 

 and Mongolia. 



Breeding habits: The White-winged Black Tern 

 visits its wonted breeding places early in May. It is an 

 inland species, and, like the other members of this genus, 

 frequents marshes rather than sands. This Tern is also 

 gregarious, breeding in colonies by itself in many local- 

 ities, but in others socially resorting with its ally the 

 Black Tern. It probably pairs for life. The favourite 

 breeding grounds are shallow pools full of reeds and 

 rushes, and the swampy shores of lakes and pools. 

 The nest is either placed amongst the reeds, sedges, and 

 other coarse vegetation near the shore, or on more or 

 less floating masses of weed and aquatic plants at some 

 distance from the bank in shallow water. It is a some- 

 what large, strong, and bulky structure, made of half- 



