56 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
June 15th, 1894, saw a number of their nests in a marshy lake 
near Crane Lake, Assa. The nest was a few pieces of rushes 
with a little grass mixed in to keep it from floating apart and 
letting the eggs fall through. Some of the nests were so small 
and so much sunken that the eggs were about one quarter in the 
water. (Spreadborougnh.) 
I found it breeding at Long Lake and Shoal Lake in Manitoba. 
It also breeds plentifully at Swan Lake in northern Alberta. It 
is a late breeder, seldom having eggs before the middle of June. 
The nests are usually built on dead, floating rushes in shallow 
water and contain three eggs each. (Razne.) 
This Tern is a summer resident in the St. Lawrence valley. In 
the County of Leeds, Ont., I first noticed it near Gananoque Lake 
in 1893, about six miles north of the St. Lawrence, where on the 
7th July, I found a nest among the flags, containing three eggs on 
the point of hatching.’ Each year since I have found two or three 
nests in the same locality. The birds choose very wet, miry 
places to lav in. Two nests were found on old musk-rat houses, 
another on a log of wood in a pool far out in the marsh, 
others in equally swampy places. Three completes the set of 
eggs, which are usually laid between the 7th and 14th June. In 
the spring of 1894 these birds were very plentiful ; since that time 
not so much so. I noticed a number of them in the Bay of 
Quinte in July, 1896, and Dr. C. K. Clarke, of Kingston, tells me 
that a number of pairs nested in Cataraqui marsh in 1897. (Rev. 
Cal Young) 
This species-breeds in all the large marshes that I have visited 
in Western Ontario, and nests on the dilapidated musk-rat houses 
and other débris, laying from two to four eggs. (W. Saunders.) 
MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 
In our museum are three skins of this species. One of these 
was shot on the Ottawa in 1885, and another at Toronto the same 
year. The other specimen was taken at Indian Head, Assa., June 
1892. 
There are seven eggs in the collection. Three were taken by 
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell on Lake St. Martin, Man., and the others were 
taken in a marshy lake near Crane Lake, Assa., on June 15th, 1894, 
by Spreadborough. 
