LABID^E. 577 



station. The spring visitors are mature birds, and all 

 that I have seen are in full summer plumage : they 

 generally make their appearance about the middle of 

 April, occasionally in considerable numbers, as I 

 have heard of as many as thirty being seen together 

 in one flock. The autumnal visitors arrive about 

 the end of August, in flocks consisting of both old 

 and young birds : many of the old birds are then 

 changing from summer to winter plumage, the fore 

 part of the head and neck being much mottled 

 with white, but some of them are still in perfect 

 summer plumage. The flock out of which I pro- 

 cured my specimens of young birds might have 

 numbered from thirty to forty : they were rather 

 dispersed about, hovering over the small pools left 

 by the tide, in search of shrimps or small fish : some 

 of them occasionally settled on the pool and swam 

 about for a short time : they appeared very light on 

 the water and to swim much like Gulls ; they did 

 not appear very wild, but easily allowed us to ap- 

 proach within shot, and had we been so disposed we 

 might have killed a great many, probably the greater 

 part of the flock, as they did not show much fear of 

 our breech-loaders, but came and hovered over their 

 dead companions, like Gulls : however, we contented 

 ourselves with three each ; one of these was an adult 

 bird changing to winter plumage all the rest were 

 young birds of the year. 



The Black Tern appears to be easily kept in 



3 D 



