294 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



For remarks on its habits as observed on Walney 

 Island, Lancashire, where I have found the eggs, 

 see Zool, 1865, p. 9161, and in Norfolk, Trevor- 

 Battye, "Pictures in Prose," 1894, p. 162. 



During the period of its migration in spring and 

 autumn the Lesser Tern, like others of its con- 

 geners, appears on the Thames and on the waters 

 of the London parks. In April 1886 two were 

 obtained at Tring Reservoir, and three were 

 seen there, Sept. 10, 1895. It appears regularly in 

 spring and autumn (for a few days only) on the 

 reservoirs at Kingsbury and Elstree, as well as on 

 the Thames at a considerable distance from the 

 mouth of the river. 



A Lesser Tern which was winged at Southend 

 in August 1879 was carried home alive and kept 

 all through the winter until the following May. It 

 became quite tame, and would come when called. 



BLACK TERN. Hydrochelklon nigra, Linnaeus. PI. 33, 

 figs. 7, 8, 8a. Length, 10 in. ; bill, 1*25 in. ; wing, 

 8*5 in. ; tarsus, 0-6 in. 



Formerly a regular summer visitant, breeding in 

 the marshlands of the eastern counties ; now a 

 spring and autumn migrant, ascending the rivers 

 from the coast, sometimes to a considerable dis- 

 tance inland. 



In 1824, according to the Rev. Leonard Jenyns 

 (06s. Nat. Hist., p. 193), this bird was nesting in 

 Cambridgeshire, in Bottisham and Swaffham Fens. 

 "Immense flocks," he says, "appeared during that 



