414 



LARID^. 



This species prefers fresh-water marshes, the vicinity of rivers 

 or reedy pools, and is found in Cambridgeshire, in some parts 

 of Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, but is a rare bird in the North 

 of England, and is not found in Scotland, although it visits 

 higher northern latitudes in other directions. The Black 

 Tern is a summer-visiter to different parts of Ireland, and Mr. 

 Robert Ball has noticed that it bred for years in succession 

 by a small lake at Roxborough, near Middleton, in the coun- 

 ty of Cork. Pennant notices a young bird of the year, in 

 which state it is the Sterna rnzvia of some authors, that was 

 shot on the Severn a few miles below Shrewsbury. Speci- 

 mens have been obtained in Devonshire. Dr. Latham pro- 

 cured some in Hampshire. Montagu mentions that in his 

 time it was common in Romney marsh, in Kent, but Mr. 

 Plomley, who resides there, tells me it is not so now ; a few 

 only are seen, and these in spring and autumn, apparently on 

 their way to and from some other locality. Mr. Bond ob- 

 tained some good specimens in the autumn of 1841, at the 

 Kingsbury reservoir, in Middlesex. The Rev. Richard Lub- 

 bock sent me word that " The Black Tern used to breed in 

 Norfolk in abundance, but that the great breeding-place in a 

 wet alder carr at Upton, where twenty years back hundreds 

 upon hundreds of nests might be found at the end of May, 

 has been broken up for some years. The Blue Darr, as it 

 is provincially termed here, has in consequence become scarce. 

 Mr. Salmon told me that he got the eggs of this bird from 

 Crowland Wash, in Lincolnshire, within the last two or three 

 years. It can hardly be said at present to breed regularly in 

 Norfolk, a few straggling pairs only still nest here." The 

 eggs figured by ]Mr. Hewitson were supplied by Mr. Salmon, 

 who obtained them from Crowland marsh, where they are de- 

 posited upon tufts of grass and rushes, sometimes in very wet 

 situations, and barely raised above the level of the water. 

 The nest is composed of flags tiiul coarse grass ; the eggs 



