ULACK TERN 427 



In 1896 Captain Boyd Alexander, in his notes from 

 Eomney Marsh, writes : "On May 23 I was fortunate 

 enough to discover, with the aid of my field ^lasses, a 

 pair of Sandwich Terns breeding here. The birds, how- 

 ever, deserted after the first egg was laid. I am incHned 

 to think that the Common Tern must have driven them 

 away." 



Dr. F. Plomley found it breedmg at Dungeness. 



Genus HYDROCHELIDON, Boie. 



BLACK TEEN. 



Hyclrochelidon nigra (Linnaeus). H.N., i., p. 227 



(1766). 



In the early part of the last century the Black Tern was 

 very abundant in the marshy lands of Kent, and especially 

 in Komney Marsh, where it used to breed in colonies, 

 but at the present day a pair or so make their appearance 

 in summer, but do not remain to breed. 



Montagu found it breeding in Eomney Marsh before 

 1802. Writing in 1844, the Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett 

 states that it was " common, breeding in Eomney 

 Marsh." 



Mr. W. H. Power, in his Birds Observed at Eainham, 

 1865, writes : " On several occasions during the autumn 

 I fancied that I had seen a few of these Terns, though 

 at such a distance that it was impossible to identify 

 them. At length, on October 12, during a gale from the 

 northward, I observed one beating about some sheltered 

 pools of water inside the sea-wall, it proved to be a bird 

 of the year. This species is far from common about the 

 creeks." In 1868 Mr. F. D. Power says : " It is never 



