524 LARID^E. 



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, and is not found in Scotland, although it visits higher 

 northern latitudes in other directions. The Black Tern is 

 a summer-visiter to different parts of Ireland, and Mr. 

 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 n<zma 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 Hampshire. Montagu mentions that in 

 his time it was common in Romney Marsh, in Kent, but 

 Mr. Plomley, who resides there, tells me it is not so now ; 

 a few only are seen, and these in spring and autumn, appa- 

 rently on their way to and from some other locality. Mr. 

 Bond obtained some good specimens in the autumn of 

 1841, at the Kingsbury reservoir, in Middlesex. The Rev. 

 Richard Lubbock 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 

 consequence 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/ 1 The eggs figured by 

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



