BLACK TERN. 519 



bogs and loughs would appear eminently suitable as breeding- 

 places. 



The Black Tern does not appear to go very far north even 

 in summer, but it is of tolerably general diffusion during the 

 breeding-season throughout the southern portions of Sweden, 

 temperate and southern Eussia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, 

 and the rest of Europe, where the localities are suitable. It 

 breeds in marshy localities on both sides of the Mediterranean; 

 but its winter range is scarcely known to extend beyond 

 North Africa, Egypt, and Palestine. The exception is a 

 single specimen, in the Editor's collection, obtained on the 

 4th January, 1871, at the Cameroons, on the west coast of 

 Africa ; but all the examples from Damara Land on the one 

 side or the Transvaal on the other, recorded as H. nigra, 

 have proved to be the White-winged Black Tern, H. leucop- 

 tera. Eastwards, it is stated, by Dr. Severtzoff, that the 

 Black Tern breeds in Turkestan, and Dr. Finsch obtained 

 it on the Marakul Lake, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, in 

 the Altai ; but the former does not record it from the Pamir 

 Steppes, and the only species of the genus observed at Gilgit 

 by Dr. Scully (Ibis, 1881, p. 594) was the Whiskered Tern, 

 H. hybrida. As yet there is no record of the occurrence of 

 the Black Tern in India or in China. 



In North America, from Canada down to the Middle 

 States, in summer, is found a Tern which is, as a rule, of 

 a deeper and browner black on the under parts than any 

 European examples which the Editor has examined, so that 

 American skins can generally be recognized at a glance; 

 but it must be admitted that some American birds cannot be 

 distinguished by this tint, and such a mere shade of colour 

 appears to be insufficient to warrant specific separation. 

 This form stretches across to the Pacific coast ; its migrations 

 extending to the West Indies and Guiana on the east side, 

 and to Peru and Chili on the west. 



The Black Tern breeds in colonies, the nests being situated 

 in marshes, and formed of decayed pieces of Equisetum and 

 other plants, or heaps of wrack, which rise and fall with the 

 water ; sometimes they are placed on the firmer hummocks 



