LARID/}-:. 



617 



THE BLACK TERN. 



HydrochelIdon nigra (Linnceus). 



The Black Tern was a regular spring-visitor to England before 

 ■drainage had done away with most of the fens and wet marshes 

 to which it used to resort for breeding-purposes ; but even in Norfolk 

 the last eggs on record were taken as long ago as 185S, though 

 early in the century the nests of the ' Blue Darr,' as the bird was 

 called, might have been found in hundreds on the alder-swamps. In 

 Lincolnshire it is possible that a pair or two of the ' Car-Swallow ' 

 may still be seen during the summer ; but otherwise this species 

 chiefly frequents our eastern and southern coasts, rivers and inland 

 waters in April and May ; while in August the young begin to 

 make their appearance, and a few birds remain in the south-west as 

 late as November. In the west of England it is rare, even on the 

 marshes of the Solway, where, however, its eggs are said to have 

 been taken in 1855 ; and though it has been met with on Loch 

 Lomond and other waters in the lowlands of Scotland, it is as yet 

 unknown in the Hebrides or the Orkneys. On the east it seldom 

 occurs northward of the Humber; Saxby, however, has stated that 

 he once observed it in the Shetlands, which is not improbable, inas- 

 much as a wanderer was obtained in the Fa:roes in September 1S86. 



