THE BLACK TERN. 



**(5 HE TERN," says Mr. F. M. 

 Woodruff, of the Chicago 

 Academy of Sciences, "is 

 the only representative of 

 the long-winged swimmers which 

 commonly nests with us on our 

 inland fresh water marshes, arriving 

 early in May in its brooding plumage 

 of sooty black. The color changes 

 in the autumn to white, and a number 

 of the adult birds may be found, in 

 the latter part of July, dotted and 

 streaked here and there with white. 

 On the first of June, 1891, I found a 

 large colony of Black Terns nesting 

 on Hyde Lake, Cook County, Illinois. 

 As I approached the marsh a few 

 birds were seen flying high in the air, 

 and as I neared the nesting site, the 

 fl)-ing birds gave notes of alarm, and 

 presently the air was filled with the 

 graceful forms of this beautiful little 

 bird. They circled about me, darting 

 down to within a few feet of my head, 

 constantly uttering a harsh, screaming 

 cry. As the eggs are laid upon the 

 bare ground, which the brownish and 

 blackish markings so closely resemble, 

 I was at first unable to find the nests, 

 and discovered that the only way to 

 locate them was to stand quietly and 

 watch the birds. When the Tern is 

 passing over the nest it checks its 

 flight, and poises for a moment on 

 quivering wings. By keeping my 

 eyes on this spot I found the nest 

 with very little trouble. The comple- 

 ment of eggs, when the bird has not 

 been disturbed, is usually three. 

 These are laid in a saucer shaped 

 structure of dead vegetation, which is 

 scraped together, from the surface of 

 the wet, boggy ground. The bird 

 figured in the plate had placed its 

 nest on the edge of an old muskrat 



house, and m.3v' attention was attracted 

 to it by the fact that upon the edge of 

 the rat house, where it had climbed to 

 rest itself, was the body of a young 

 dabchick, or piedbilled grebe, scarcely 

 two and one-half inches long, and not 

 twenty-four hours out of the egg, a 

 beautiful little ball of blackish down, 

 striped with brown and white. From 

 the latter part of July to the middle of 

 August large flocks of Black Terns 

 may be seen on the shores of our 

 larger lakes on their annual migration 

 southward." 



The Rev. P. B. Peabody, in alluding to 

 his observation of the nests of the 

 Tern, says: "Amid this floating sea 

 of aquatic nests I saw an unusual 

 number of well constructed homes of 

 the Tern. Among these was one that 

 I count a perfect nest. It rested on 

 the perfectly flat foundation of a small 

 decayed rat house, which was about 

 fourteen inches in diameter. The nest, 

 in form, is a truncated cone (barring the 

 cavity), was about eight inches high 

 and ten inches in diameter. The 

 hollow — quite shallow — was about 

 seven inches across, being thus un- 

 usually large. The whole was built 

 up of bits of rushes, carried to the spot, 

 these being quite uniform in length 

 — about four inches." After daily 

 observation of the Tern, during which 

 time he added much to his knowledge 

 of the bird, he pertinently asks: " Who 

 shall say how many traits and habits 

 yet unknown may be discovered 

 through patient watching of com- 

 munity-breeding birds, by men enjoy- 

 ing more of leisure for such delightful 

 studies than often falls to the lot of 

 most of us who have bread and butter 

 to earn and a tiny part of the world's 

 work to finish?" 



104 



