326 



LAKES AND STREAMS 



later on with chewed food or .small fish they drop down to them as they fly over. 

 The tern flies low and easily at all speeds, and can be very speedy when required. 

 When pursued by the hobby, it evades the attack with great skill, rising higher 

 and higher after every failure of its enemy, and with many a curve continues its 

 upward flight, until the falcon is too exhausted to follow. 



The marsh-terns differ from the typical terns in having a much 



Rl t pk Tern 



shorter fork t» « the tail, in the webs of the toes being more deeply cut, 

 and in the length of the beak not exceeding the width of the head. The black 

 tern {Hyd/rochelidon nigra) takes up its summer abode among the marshes or by 

 still pools, avoiding clear flowing water and the seashore. The nest is generally 

 in some swampy solitude, and is a mere mass of 

 rotting plants rising and falling with the water, or so 

 close to it as to appear as if drifted ashore with the 

 dozen or more that are often within a few yards. 

 There are three eggs of 

 various tints of butt' or 

 stone, blotched with grey 

 and brown. The birds ar- 

 rive from the south at the 

 end of April, or beginning 



■a 



f^^±^' 



BLACK TERN' AMI rOTTSO. 



of May, and leave towards the end of Jury or beginning of August. In Germany 

 they migrate in parties of no more than thirty, but in Hungary in hundreds at a 

 time, travelling partly by day and partly by night, circling round some sheet of 

 water that looks promising for food, descending in graceful curves to fish for hours 

 and then rising in spirals into the air. ami disappear, without any clue as to 

 their destination. The black tern nests all across Europe south of the latitude of 

 the Shetlands and north of the Alps, and as far eastwards in Asia as Turkestan, 

 and also breeds in the North African marshes, wintering as far south as Abyssinia 

 and Loane-M. In America it ranges from Canada to Chile. Perching with its 

 neck drawn back, it seems to have longer and narrower wings than other terns. 



