BLACK TERN. 



415 



usually three, but sometimes four ; those in my own collec- 

 tion are of a dark olive-brown, blotched, and sjiotted with 

 black, principally at the larger end ; the length of the egg 

 one inch five lines, by one inch in breadth. The food of this 

 Tern consists chiefly of beetles and dragon-flies, with some 

 small fish. The insect portion of its prey is taken on the 

 wing with great ease and certainty, as the flight of the bird is 

 rapid, and it turns, stops, or alters its course in an instant. 

 Its note is shrill. The Black Tern makes its appearance 

 here by the end of April, or the beginning of May, and 

 leaves us early in October. Montagu mentions an instance 

 of having seen a young bird in Devonshire as late as the be- 

 ginning of November in 1802. 



M. Nilsson says this species is rather common in Sweden, 

 and it is included in the various histories of the Birds of Ger- 

 many. M. Temminck says it is very abundant in Holland, 

 and in the extensive marshes of Hungary. It is observed in 

 some of the marshes of France ; visits some of the lakes of 

 Switzerland, and is seen at Genoa on its northern route in 

 spring. M. Savi includes it in his Birds of Italy. The 

 Zoological Society received a specimen, a young bird, sent by 

 Mr. Ross from Trebizond ; and the Russian naturalists found 

 it also in the vicinity of the Caucasus. 



Dr. Heineken includes the Black Tern in his catalogue of 

 the Birds of Madeira. 



Pennant says Kalm saw flocks of hundreds of these birds 

 in the Atlantic ocean, midway between England and Ame- 

 rica. The Black Tern is well known to the ornithologists of 

 the United States, in some of which it is abundant. 



Adult males and females in summer have the bill black ; 

 the irides dark brown ; whole head and neck dark lead-grey ; 

 back, wings, and tail uniform slate-grey ; breast and belly, like 

 the head and neck, dark lead-grey ; vent and under tail- 

 coverts white ; legs, toes, and their short membranes dark 



