48 
BLA.CK TERtf. 
these birds were shot in October, 1849, at Swanpool, Fal¬ 
mouth, Cornwall. A pair at Chertsey, in Surrey, the end 
of May in the same year; others at Frensham Pond, near 
Godaiming; at Weybridge, one on the 10th. of August, 
1841, and one on the 12th. of May, 1842, the latter out 
of a flock of about twenty. In Oxfordshire this species is 
occasionally found, generally in immature plumage, but adult 
specimens have been obtained near Oxford and on Otmoor; 
two, both adult males, on Port Meadow, near Oxford, in 
May, 1848; others had been procured there previously. 
William Felkin, Esq., Junior, of Carrington, near Notting¬ 
ham, has written me word that a flock were seen near the 
latter town, on the River Trent, in June, 1851, and one of 
them shot; and also some others in January, 1854, during 
the severe snow-storm of that month, at Wilford, near there. 
Another, Mr. John Shaw informs me, was killed at Wroxeter, 
on the Severn, in May, 1853. The Hon. T. L. Powys has 
met with several in Northamptonshire, on the River Nene, 
near Thrapstone. 
In Scotland, one was shot at Coldstream, Berwickshire, 
the beginning of July, 1851. One had previously been 
obtained in East Lothian. 
In Ireland it occurs as an occasional straggler. Some have 
been observed by the River Shannon, and Sir William Jardine 
says there is a breeding-place at Roxburgh, near Middleton, 
in the county of Cork. 
These Terns frequent, for the most part, low and flat 
watery grounds, morasses, bogs, fens, and pools. 
They migrate chiefly by night, flying at a great elevation, 
but otherwise, if following the course of a river, low down. 
‘When this bird rests on the ground, it carries its head 
with the neck shortened, its breast lowered, and its body in 
a horizontal position, with its wings crossed one over the 
other, and carried considerably above the tail.’ The time of 
their arrival is in April or the beginning of May, and that 
of their departure early in October. One was seen by 
Montagu so late as the beginning of November, 1802. 
In Italy, thousands of these birds are sold in the markets 
for food. 
The powers of flight of this species are equally great with 
those of the others. Flocks have been seen in the middle of 
the Atlantic Ocean. ‘Nil moror’ is their motto, in disregard 
of the longest journey, and distance forms no part of their 
