THE BLACK TERN. 



757 



ing incessantlv. If the water Ijecoines U>n thick with imul and tangleil 

 vegetation to admit of easy passage, one must be content to strip off and wade 

 thru black water, say six inches deep, o\er black mud one and a half feet deei), 

 and be prepared as well for occasional plunges inti.> uncharted depths. When 

 one gets "hot'" in this ancient game of hide-the-thimble, the most interested 

 l)air of birds will single themselves (nit from the hovering throng and prepare 

 fcir defense. Unless their ad\'ances are early discouragetl, the bcildness of 

 these two will increase until they actually strike the intruder on the head, to 

 say nothing of frequent salutations with flying shearn. At the same time the 

 characteristic crv, krik. krik. — lighter in character than that of the Forster 

 Tern, but still guttural and harsh — is flatted b_\- anger into kra-ack. kra-ack. 



The nests are 

 placeil \ariously in 

 the swamp, some- 

 times on a little 

 raft of floating vege- 

 tation which the bird 

 has brought together, 

 sometimes on a trun- 

 cated cone of fresh - 

 cut herbage and twist- 

 ed grasses resting up- 

 on the solid earth, but 

 oftenest upon the am- 

 ple expanse of some 

 Grebe's nest, new or 

 old. The little tyrants 

 have no hesitation in 

 appropriating a 

 Grebe's nest of fresh 

 construction, even the 

 the rightful owner 



Bitnik Ltikc. Photo by the 



NEST .'\Nn EGGS OF THE BLACK TERN. 



has already deposited t.iI; 

 eggs. The spitfires 

 have the advantage in 



being able to strike from above, and it is to be feared they sumetimes resort 

 to mol) tactics in case of serious opposition. The pale oli\e-brown eggs, 

 hea\'ilv spotted and blotched with blackish brown, harmonize so perfectly 

 with their surroundings of decaying and mud-spattered vegetation, as almost 

 to elude the sight even after being once discovered. 



