BLACK TERN. DAH! 
ORDER GAVIA. 
FAMILY LARIDA.—SUB-FAMILY STERNINZ. 
BLACK TERN. 
HYDROCHELIDON NIGRA (Linnzus). 
Although less frequently observed in Cheshire than in 
the eastern counties, the Black Tern has occurred several 
times on migration in spring and autumn. Brockholes 
only mentions one, a bird he saw on the Dee Marshes 
near Puddington, in autumn ;! but the late W. Thompson 
told Dr. Dobie that one year he received several examples 
from the Dee Estuary.? In the collection of local birds 
at Swythamley Manor there is an adult, labelled 
‘Macclesfield Forest, 1862. The late Dr. E. Crew of 
Alderley Edge possessed another mature bird, which was 
shot on Alderley Mere about the year 1885. 
On the Ist of August 1887, Mr. J. J. Cash watched 
two Black Terns feeding at Rostherne Mere. He says 
they frequently settled for a brief period on a stake 
projecting from the water, and when on the wing, beat 
slowly up against the wind for a short distance, then 
turning, flew rapidly down-wind to repeat the manceuvre. 
In 1893, two birds were shot at Oakmere on April 
22nd; only one was secured, an adult male, now in the 
Grosvenor Museum, Chester? We have seen a speci- 
men in a cottage at Poynton, which was shot some 
years ago on the Pool. 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 16. 2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 341. 
3 Dobie, Zoologist, ser. 111. vol. xvii. p. 227. 1893. 
