Terns 



Black Tern 



(HydrocMidon nigra surinamensis) 



Called also: SHORT-TAILED TERN 



Length, 9.50 to io inches. 



Male and Female In summer: Head, neck all around, and under 

 parts jet black, except the under tail coverts, which are 

 white. Back, wings, and tail slate color. In winter: Very 

 different: forehead, sides of head, nape, and under parts 

 white; under wing coverts only, ashy gray; back of the 

 head mixed black and white; mantle over back, wings, and 

 tail, deep pearl gray. Many feathers with white edges. In 

 the process of molt, head and under parts show black and 

 white patches. Immature specimens resemble the winter 

 birds, except that their upper parts are more or less mixed 

 with brownish, and their sides washed with grayish. 



Range North America at large, in the interior and along the 

 coasts, but most abundant inland; nests from Kansas and 

 Illinois northward, but not on the Atlantic coast. 



Season Irregular migrant on the Atlantic coast from Prince 

 Edward's Island southward. Common summer resident 

 inland. May to August or September. 



Although eastern people rarely see this dusky member of 

 a tribe they are wont to think of as having particularly deli- 

 cate pearl and white plumage, it is the most abundant species in 

 the west, and indeed the only one of the entire order of long- 

 winged swimmers that commonly nests far away from the sea 

 in the United States. Early in May it arrives in large flocks that 

 have gathered on the way from Brazil and Chile to nest in the 

 Middle States, west of the Allegha'nies, and northward. A large 

 colony takes up its residence in the fresh-water marshes and 

 reedy sloughs so abundant in southern Illinois and elsewhere in 

 the middle west; and although the birds have apparently mated 

 during the migration, if not before, there are many flirtations 

 and petty jealousies exhibited before family cares banish all non- 

 sense in June. Not that the bird makes any effort to construct a 

 nest, in which case it could hardly be a tern at all, so easy-going 

 are all the family in this respect; nor that it is depressed by long, 

 patient sittings on the eggs, for the incubating is, for the most 

 part, left to the sun, when it shines ; but all terns are devoted 



56 



