472 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



low over it, but I have never seen any attempts made to assist it in 

 escaping, after the manner ascribed to some of the family. 



Besides aquatic insects the Black Tern feeds largely on dragon flies 

 which it adroitly captures on the wing. The bird may frequently be 

 seen dashing about in a zigzag manner so swiftly the eye can offer no 

 explanation of its motive until, on the resumption of its ordinary flight, 

 a large dragon fly is seen hanging from its bill and sutficiently accounts 

 for the erratic movements of the bird. After having captured its prey 

 in this way I have frequently seen' a tern apparently playing with its 

 victim, letting it go and catching it again, or if it is unable to fly, 

 dropping it, and darting under it to seize it again and again before it 

 touches the water. After the young are hatched, a small flock of the 

 old ones may be seen together leaving the pond and winging their way 

 across country to some favorite dragon-fly ground. Their flight at first 

 is uncertain and vacillating, but as soon as one has secured its load it 

 returns with steady flight and in a straight line to its nest. 



Under ordinary circumstances I was always impressed with the idea 

 that the tern was very swift and entered into a series of elaborate cal- 

 culations to ascertain the rate of its flight. A large number of obser- 

 vations resulted in an average of three wing beats per second, with 

 the greatest of regularity ; another series of observations, not so satis- 

 factory, allowed a distance of 5 yards to be traversed at each beat. 

 This gave only the disappointing rate of something over 30 miles per 

 hour, but this was at the uncertain foraging flight. Once the mother 

 tern has secured her load of provender, a great change takes place, as 

 already mentioned ; she rises high in air, and I am sure she doubles her 

 former rate of speed, and straight as a ray of light makes for home. It 

 is said that many birds can not fly with the wind; not so the tern ; for 

 now, if there be a gale blowing her way, she mounts it like a steed and 

 adds its swiftness to her own, till she seems to glance across the sky, 

 and vanishes in the distance with a speed that would leave far behind 

 even the eagle, so long the symbol of all that was dashing and swift. 



17. Phalacrocorax dilophus. Double-crested Cormorant. Crow Duck. 



Summer resident about the large lakes of the westward region when 

 there is plenty of fish ; once observed on Ked Eiver near Pembina 

 (Coues). Winnipeg: Summer resident; not rare, and found breeding 

 at Lake Winnipeg; occasional on Red River (Hine). Breeding at 

 Shoal Lake and Selkirk Settlement (D. Gunu). Shoal Lake: Plentiful ; 

 breeding; May 10, 1887 (Christy). Ossowa: Breeding (Wagner). 

 Portage la Prairie : Tolerably common during the spring migration, on 

 the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, and the wooded sloughs adjacent to 

 them, but very seldom seen in the autumn ; first seen April 24, 1885, 

 April 20, 1886; on October 8, 1886 ; I saw one flying up the Red River 

 southward ; these birds are very wild and difficult of approach when 

 on the water, rising with a great flapping before one can get within 200 



