568 THE BLACK TERX. 



the part of the Terns, for this tiny species is not a whit behind the Arctics 

 in the vehemence of its resentment, dashing at the intruder with fierce darts 

 and swoops, which only just miss the pate wherein conscience lies uneasy. 

 Besides, while its eggs or young are being menaced, it "keeps up a protesting 

 cry of nik, uik, nik, sounding very much like the querulous grunt of a young 

 pig whose mother has left it too far in the rear.'' 



No. 272. 



BLACK TERN. 



A. O. U. Xo. 77. Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis (Gmel.). 



Description. Adult in summer : Head and neck all around, and under parts 

 sooty black; the crissum white, and the edges and lining of wings white or pale 

 pearl gray, under parts plumbeous, darker on upper back, where it blends through 

 slate with black cervix ; primaries not different on exposed webs, the inner webs, 

 however, dusky, lightening on the inner half, and the shafts white; tail slightly 

 forked ; bill and feet black. Adult in winter : Lighter, the black replaced by white, 

 save on back of head, orbits, and auriculars, where obscurely persistent ; upper 

 parts deep pearl gray. Immature: Like adult in winter, but upper parts more 

 or less tinged and tipped with brownish, and sides washed with grayish. Length 

 9.00-10.25 (228.6-260.4) ; wing 8.00 (203.2) ; tail 3.00 (76.2) ; bill 1.04 (26.4) ; 

 tarsus .67 (17.). 



Recognition Marks. Chewink to Robin size, but appearing about Killdeer 

 size ; sooty black and plumbeous coloration distinctive in breeding plumage ; dark 

 pearly gray of upper parts with black bill (and feet), with small size sufficiently 

 distinctive at other seasons. 



Nest, in marshes, on the ground, or on old broken-down reeds, old musk-rat 

 houses, and the like. Eggs, 2 or 3, sometimes 4, grayish olive, or pale brownish, 

 heavily spotted and blotched with blackish brown, the markings sometimes con- 

 fluent at larger end. Av. size, 1.35 x .98 (34.3 x 24.9). 



General Range. Temperate and tropical America. From Alaska and the 

 Fur Countries to Brazil, breeding from the middle United States, west of the 

 Alleghanies northward. 



Range in Ohio. Common during migrations throughout the state. Breeds 

 in the river marshes along the south shore of Lake Erie. 



IN some of the prairie states further west, the Black Tern seems to be 

 a sort of connecting link between the birds of land and water. There it is 

 found either singly or in little companies, ranging over the prairie with the 

 freedom of a Swallow and at considerable distances from its breeding haunts. 

 In our own state it is more strictly confined to the vicinity of the extensive 

 marshes which line the Lake Erie shore, and where alone it is known to breed 



