I.ARID.I^. 



619 



THE WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 



HVDROCHELIDON I.EUC()PTERA (Schinz). 



This species, whicli has a more south-easterly habitat than the Black 

 Tern, is an irregular visitor to our shores on migration — especially 

 during May and June, in which months a good many examples 

 have been obtained of late years in Norfolk, while others have 

 occurred on the coasts of Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Cornwall and the 

 Scilly Islands, northward in Yorkshire and Durham, and inland near 

 Coventry. The first British specimen on record was, however, shot 

 in Dublin Bay, Ireland, in October 1841, and I have examined a 

 bird in full moult killed at Ilfracombe, North Devon, early in Novem- 

 ber 1870; these being the only autumnal instances known to me. 

 Besides the former, two more have been obtained in Ireland, 

 but in spring. 



The White-winged Black Tern has only once been known to 

 wander as far as Lund in Sweden, and its northern breeding-limits 

 appear to be in the governments of Lublin and Siedlec in Poland, 

 south of which it is by no means uncommon on some of the 

 marshes of Central and South-eastern Europe. It probably nests 

 in Sicily, as well as near Massaciuccoli and Venice on the mainland 

 of Italy, which it visits on migration; it frequents the Camargue, 

 ascends the valley of the Rhone to Savoy and Central France, 

 and passes along the east coast of Spain in considerable numbers, 

 though seldom seen in the south-west and not recorded by Mr. Tait 

 from Portugal. In Western Morocco it is hardly known, but it 

 is said to breed in Algeria and Lower Egypt, while in winter it is 



