328 



BIRD-LIFE IN WESTERN CANADA 



story. Its main facts are shown in the photographs which 

 are here reproduced. One pictures the Tern while incubat- 

 ing. A second pictures her brooding her young after one of 

 their enforced baths in the surrounding waters. A compari- 

 son of these pictures shows the difference between the poses 

 of the bird (hiring incubation and while brooding. A third 

 photogra])li reveals the two little Terns just as tiiey lial 

 cliii^bo 1 into the nest after their long swim for safety. 



Black Tern Brooding 



The incident is an extremely interesting illustration of 

 the power of that parental control on which the safety of 

 the young l)ird so largely depends. Here were non-natatorial 

 birds which, at the age of three days, in response to the com- 

 mands of their jjai-cnt, made, without hesitation, what was, 

 doubtless, their tirst i)lunge into the water, swimming so ef- 

 fectively that we were unable to discover their hiding-place, 



