708 HYDROCHELIDON NIGRA, WHITE-WINGED TERN. 



often fluttering within a few feet of one's bead, and then sailing off 

 again, in the manner of Swallows. The flight is buoyant in the extreme, 

 and wayward, desultory, uncertain ; perhaps no bird of this country has 

 so great an exi)anse of wing for its weight, and certainly none tly more 

 lightly. In hovering along on the lookout for insects, they hold the bill 

 pointing straight downward, like others of the family. In the spring 

 I have observed them plunging, like other Terns, into the water for food, 

 probably small fry, but in the fall they seem to feed chiefly on winged 

 insects, which they capture like Night-hawks, as noted above. 



The Black Tern I have found breeding in various parts of the West. 

 On the 10th of June, 18G4, I passed a large colony which had settled on 

 a marshy tract along the Arkansas River, near Fort Lyons. The birds 

 were all in full plumage, and doubtless had eggs at the time, although, 

 from the untoward circumstances of obsem^ation — hurried traveling by 

 stage — I could not examine the nesting places as I wished. In June 

 again, 1873, 1 found a colony breeding in a prairie slough along the Red 

 River; shot the greater part of the whole number, and secured many 

 eggs. The birds were breeding in company with a great number of 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, some Red-wings, and Short-billed Marsh 

 Wrens. ' The eggs, in every instance, were placed on masses of floating 

 debris of last year's reeds, where the water was tAvo or three feet deep, 

 in the midst of the slough. They had to be closely looked after, for 

 they were laid directly on the moist matting, without any nest in any 

 instance, and readily eluded observation, from their similarity in color 

 to the bed of reeds they rested on. They were two, oftener three, in 

 number, and resembled those of some Sandpipers in size, shape, and 

 coloration. Tbe shape is pointedly' pyriform, yet with considerable 

 bulge at the sides; the dimensions, 1.35 by 0.95, with the usual varia- 

 tion either way. The ground color is brownish-olive, rather liglit and 

 clear, this thickly marked with spots and blotches of every size, from 

 mere points up to masses, but for the most part large and bold, with a 

 tendency to aggregate at the but, or, at least, around (he larger half of 

 the egg. No part of the surface, however, is unspotted. The coloration 

 is a rich, warm brown, of every shade, from light brown to blackish- 

 brown, according to the quantity of pigment. With these markings are 

 associated a few neutral tints or stone-gray spots, in the shell. 



HYDROCHELIDON NIGRA, (Linn.) Gray. 



White-winged Black Tern. 



Sterna atricapiUa, Briss., Oiii. vi, 1760, 214. 



Sterna nifira, Linn., Fu. Suec. 56, No. 159; Syst. Nat. i, 1766, 227.— Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 



608. — Lath., Intl. Orn. ii, 1790, 810 (quotes S. atricapiUa, Briss., vi, 214). 



(Not of Briss., nor of many authors.) 

 Hydroclu'li'lon nigra, Gray, Gen. of B. iii, 1849, 660 ; List Br. B. 1863, 243; Hand-list, iii, 



1871, 121, No. 11070.— Blas., J. f. O. 1866, 82. 

 Sterna lei'coptira, Meisner, Viig. Scbweiz. 1815,264. — Temm., Man. ii, 1820, 747. — Naum., 



V. D. X, 1840, 215, pi. 257.— Keys. & Blas., Wirb. Eur. 1840, 98.— Sciil., Rev. 



Grit. 1844, 131.— McCoy, Ann. Mag. N. H. 1845, 271.— CouES, Check-list, 1874, 



No. 575 his (first introduced into Fauna N. Am. ; spec, in Mus. Smiths. Inst., 



from Wisconsin, T. Kumlein, through Dr. Brewer). 

 Sfenia {IhjdrochtJidon) teitcopicra, Schrenck, Keise, 511.— Radde, Reiseu, ii, 1863, 389. 

 Hijdrochdidon leiicoptcra, BoiE, Isis, 18:^2, 563.— Kaup, Sk. Ent. Eur. Thierw. 1829, 109.— 



Brehm, V. D. 1831, 796. 

 Viralva Itncoptcra, Leach, Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii. 1826, 170. 

 Sterna fiHsipes, Paix., Zoog. R. A. ii, 1811, 338. (Adult. Not of authors; quotations of 



tvuefistiipes, but description unmistakably of this species.) 

 Sterna nwx-ia, Pali.., Zoog. R. A. ii, 337. (Young. Not of authors; identified on same 



grounds as the preceding.) 



