524 LARID^. 



every specimen of which the date of capture is known, has 

 been obtained on the vernal migration in May and June. 



The White-winged Black Tern is a very rare bird in Northern 

 Europe, and even in the south of Sweden only one specimen, 

 obtained near Lund on the 1st June, 1835, is recorded by 

 Nilsson.* It is almost equally uncommon in Northern Ger- 

 many and Belgium, and it is an accidental visitor to the 

 northern portions of France, but along the Ehone valley, in 

 Savoy, and in the Camargue, it is of regular occurrence. On 

 migration it is common along the east coast of Spain, but a 

 rare and irregular straggler so far west as the marshes of the 

 Guadalquivir. In Italy it is principally observed on the 

 spring migration, and it probably breeds in Sicily and Sar- 

 dinia, but in the smaller islands of the Mediterranean it is 

 merely a migrant. In some parts of Southern Germany, and 

 on the Neusiedler lake and other localities in Hungary, it is 

 known to breed ; it nests in limited numbers on the lakes 

 near Lublin in the south of Poland^ and abundantly in the 

 marshes of Polesia ; also throughout Southern Russia to the 

 Volga and the Caspian. Very rare so far west as Tangier 

 in Morocco, it is said to breed in Algeria ; also in the 

 Delta of the Nile, and for some distance up that river, 

 visiting Abyssinia and the Red Sea on migration. In winter 

 it occurs in flocks on the marshes and ' vleys ' of the Trans- 

 vaal, and Andersson found it common in similar localities in 

 Damara Land ; it has also been recorded from the Gambia. 

 In Asia its breeding-range extends from the Caspian, across 

 Southern Siberia, to Mongolia, Northern China, and the 

 Amoor ; and Pallas states that this species visits Kamts- 

 chatka. Swinhoe obtained it in Southern China, and on the 

 island of Formosa ; it visits the Philippines, Borneo, Celebes, 

 and the Eastern Archipelago, Burmah and Ceylon, and it 

 has once been obtained (Ibis, 1870, p 436), in full plumage, 

 at Tipperah, in Eastern Bengal. Mr. Buller says, but with- 

 out adducing any evidence, that this Tern has been found 



* The late Mr. G. R. Gray erroneously identified with this species the Sterna 

 nigra which Linnaeus describes as "found on the small reedy islands about 

 Upsala." His unfortunate example has been too widely followed, and has 

 occasioned much confusion. 



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