3 J: BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF THE BLACK TERN {HYDRO- 

 GHELIDON LARIFORMIS) IN MINNESOTA. 



The Black Tern is the most abundant representative of its fiimily 

 in this State, making its appearance in the vicinity of Minneapolis 

 about the middle of May. Stragglers remain until the first week 

 in September, but the majority leave during the latter part of 

 August. For a short time after their arrival they are to be seen 

 flying leisurely around the larger lakes ; but as the nesting-season 

 approaches they select some prairie slough or marshy lake, and 

 there spend the greater part of their time until the young are able 

 to fly. Late in May or early in June the nest is built and the eggs 

 are laid, or the eggs are deposited without any nest, as the case 

 may be. Dr. Coues mentions (Birds of the Northwest, 1874) meet- 

 ing with a colony breeding along the Red River, and states that 

 there were no nests whatever, the eggs being placed on beds of 

 decaying reeds. Such is their habit under some circumstances, but 

 only two instances of the kind have come under my notice as yet. 

 Once, I found three eggs laid directly on the mud on an abandoned, 

 broken-down muskrat house in the midst of a large slough. The 

 same day I found another set of two eggs on a bed formed by the 

 bending over of the tops of some tall dead grass. They were thus 

 raised more than a foot above the water, which was of considerable 

 depth. There was no indication of a nest, the eggs being held in 

 place by resting among the coarse grass. A very interesting and 

 valuable note on this subject occurs in a short article by Dr. P. L. 

 Hatch, published in the Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of 

 Natural Sciences for 1876. It is an extract from a letter written 

 by Mr. E. W. Nelson of Chicago, and although the observations 

 were not made in this State, I will introduce them here : ** I have 

 seen the eggs of Sterna 2)lu7nbea deposited on masses of floating 

 weeds in several instances, but only for the third brood, the bird 

 having previously built two nests and deposited the eggs in both, 

 which had been removed by myself to ascertain how many they 

 would lay. The result was almost invariably as follows : first nest, 

 three eggs ; second nest, two eggs ; and the third, one egg. In 



