BLACK TERN. 529 



spring, at the period of its arrival, or in autumn, when 

 about to take leave for the winter. This species prefers 

 fresh-water marshes, the vicinity of rivers or reedy pools, 

 and is found in Cambridgeshire, in some parts of Norfolk, 

 and Lincolnshire, but is a rare bird in the North of Eng- 

 land. It has been killed once on the Tweed, above Cold- 

 stream. The Black Tern is a summer visitor to different 

 parts of Ireland, and Dr. Robert Ball has noticed that it 

 bred for years in succession by a small lake at Roxborough, 

 near Middleton, in the county of Cork. Pennant notices 

 a young bird of the year, in which state it is the Sterna 

 ncema of some authors, that was shot on the Severn a few 

 miles below Shrewsbury. Specimens have been obtained 

 in Devonshire. Dr. Latham procured some in Hamp- 

 shire. Montagu mentions that in his time it was common 

 in Romney Marsh, in Kent, but Dr. Plomley when re- 

 siding there, told me it was not so then ; a few only were 

 seen, and these in spring and autumn, apparently on their 

 way to and from some other locality. Mr. Bond obtained 

 some good specimens in the autumn of 1841, at the Kings- 

 bury reservoir, in Middlesex. The Rev. Richard Lub- 

 bock sent me word that " The Black Tern used to breed 

 in Norfolk in abundance, but that the great breeding-place 

 in a wet alder carr at Upton, where, twenty years back, 

 hundreds upon hundreds of nests might be found at the 

 end of May, has been broken up for some years. The 

 Blue Darr, as it is provincially termed here, has in conse- 

 quence become scarce. Mr. Salmon told me that he got 

 the eggs of this bird from Crowland Wash, in Lincoln- 

 shire, within the last two or three years. It can hardly 

 be said at present to breed regularly in Norfolk, a few 

 straggling pairs only still nest here." The eggs figured by 

 Mr. Hewitson were supplied by Mr. Salmon, who obtained 

 them from Crowland Marsh, where they are deposited 

 VOL. in. M M 



