BLACK TERN. 
49 
calculations in setting out. Meyer says that it has frequently 
been observed that the Black Tern is so exceedingly quick 
and dexterous on the wing, that Hawks find it generally 
difficult, if not impossible, to strike one, and are frequently 
obliged to give up the pursuit. Montagu was a witness to 
one such instance, and mentions ‘a chase of this bird by a 
Peregrine Falcon, whose repeated pounces it foiled, and from 
whom it ultimately escaped, by the dexterity and singular 
quickness of its manoeuvres.’ They swim only from necessity, 
not from choice, and walk or run but little, almost the whole 
of their time being passed in the air. 
They live on insects, dragon-flies and others, small fish, 
young frogs, and worms. Those articles of food that belong 
to the water, they dip down at, and so pick up; any on the 
land, they alight beside for an instant, and then fly off with. 
Their call-note is thought to be like the word ‘kear, kear,’ 
uttered in a rather soft and plaintive manner. 
These birds build together in great numbers; they choose 
for the purpose swampy places among moors or fens. Their 
nests are either placed in some slight mound of earth, or tuft 
of grass or rushes, close to or floated on the water, among the 
kindred stems and stalks of flags and reeds, and with grass 
for the inner portion. 
The eggs are three in number, and still oftener four, and 
of a rather dark olive green or olive brown colour, blotted and 
spotted with deep brown or black, principally at the larger end. 
The young are produced in fifteen or sixteen days. 
Male; weight, about two ounces and three quarters; length, 
nine inches and three quarters to ten inches; the bill is flattened 
at the sides, black and polished, with a tinge of crimson at 
the base, the inside of the mouth red; iris, dark dusky brown. 
Head and crown, dark leaden grey, nearly black, in winter 
white or nearly so, as is the space between the bill and the 
eye; neck and nape, dark leaden grey, also white in winter; 
chin, throat, and breast, deep blackish grey in summer, the 
former white in winter; back, deep slate-colour. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they expand 
to the width of oiie foot ten inches, and reach, when closed, 
two inches beyond the end of the tail; the outer web of the 
first is black, and a narrow pale stripe borders the edge of the 
inner. Primaries, slate-colour, bordered with a lighter shade 
on the ends of the inner webs of the two first. Tail, dark 
slate-colour, not much forked; under tail coverts, white. Legs 
VOL. VIII. E 
