74 THE TERNS 



Naumann asserts that the black-tern can catch no flying insects. 1 It 

 has, however, been seen recorded by at least five observers 

 catching insects that were flying above the surface of the water, and 

 doing it with grace and ease. 2 Mr. Jourdain, who has frequently 

 watched the bird on the Continent, tells me that " no one can watch a 

 flock darting through a big rise of Ephemerae without admitting that 

 they can and do take insects on the wing. I believe they take 

 dragon-flies in the same way, but in some districts, such as the 

 Danube delta, these insects are found in millions and their capture 

 is very easy ; consequently the birds would be more often seen 

 feeding upon them than in those parts of Germany where Naumann 

 lived." Another record of their skill in insect-catching is given by 

 Heuglin, quoted in Hennicke's revised edition of Naumann's work, 

 the one quoted throughout the present book. 



Besides hawking for insects in the air, the bird picks these and 

 other food off the surface of the water when in flight, dipping its 

 beak only. It also alights for the same purpose on the water, and 

 has been once recorded as plunging in, like the Sea-Terns, with a 

 splash, completely submerging itself for an instant. 3 It frequently, 

 when on the wing, picks insects from the water-plants, and has been 

 seen, like other sea-birds, following the plough for worms and grubs. 4 



Its usual call-note, which appears also to be an alarm-note, has 

 been syllabled by Naumann as kliiah (Anglicised kleebh}. He 

 credits it with two other notes, giek and kier, the latter not unlike the 

 ordinary note of the Arctic-tern. 5 According to Professor Patten, 

 " the note, which is frequently uttered, is shrill and powerful for the 

 size of the bird. It sounds like creek-crick" 6 H. Saunders renders it 

 as a shrill crick, crick. 7 Neither of these two authorities alludes to the 

 second or third note mentioned by Naumann. 



1 Vogel Mitteleuropas, xi. Ill : " Konnen kein fliegendes Insekt fangen." 



1 T. A. Coward, Fauna of Cheshire, i. 419 ; Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, p. 370; Stevenson, 

 Birds of Norfolk, iii. 315 ; Yarrell, History of Birds, iii. 520; F. C. R. Jourdain in litt. 



3 A. W. Boyd quoted in Coward, Fauna of Cheshire, i. 419. 



4 Dresser, Birds of Europe, vol. viii. * Vogel Mitteteuropas, xi. 110. 



' Aquatic Birds, p. 374. 7 Manual of British Birds, 2nd edit., p. 634. 



