WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 25 1 



noise, and feed as well on flies as water insects and small fish." 

 Dr. Patten says its note is "shrill and powerful," and Saunders 

 calls it " a shrill crick, crick^^ but on migration it is a silent 

 traveller. 



The head, neck, and breast of the mature bird are black in 

 summer ; the rest of the plumage, except for white on the carpal 

 angle and the under tail- coverts, is slate-grey, varying in depth. 

 The bill is black, the legs are dark reddish brown, the irides 

 blackish brown. After the autumn moult the forehead, sides of 

 face and neck, a collar, and the under parts are white, tinged 

 and speckled in places with grey, and the bill often shows a 

 trace of red at the base. The greyish upper parts of young 

 birds are suffused and mottled with brown and buff, and the 

 face, nape, and a patch on the side of the neck are dark grey \ 

 there is a dark patch on the shoulder, which is still present 

 in the second autumn when the back and wings have lost their 

 brown splashes. The bill is brown, darkest at the tip, and the 

 legs are reddish brown. Length, 9-6 ins. Wing, 8"5 ins. 

 Tarsus, o*6 in. 



White-winged Black Tern, Hydi-ocheiidon kucoptera 

 (Temm.). 



The White-winged Black Tern (Plate iii) breeds in central 

 and south-eastern Europe and western Asia, and winters in 

 southern Asia and Africa, yet it occasionally wanders north- 

 west and appears in spring and, more rarely, in autumn in our 

 southern and eastern counties. It has been met with as a 

 vagrant in Ireland and inland in England. 



There is no difficulty in identifying the adult bird in summer, 

 for the white patch on the carpal joint is, naturally, conspicuous 

 against the deep black head, back, and breast, and more notice- 

 able still are the white upper and under tail-coverts and tail. 

 The rest of the plumage except the wings is blacker than in the 



