THE BLACK TERN. 247 



More common in its immature plumage, five specimens 

 also in our collection were obtained, during different seasons, 

 in the county of Dublin. Of these the last two came under 

 notice in a living state, in October, 1852, when we remarked 

 two birds flying in the bay, which attracted attention from 

 their small appearance, and long sweep of the wing in flight. 

 Believing them to be the immature little gull, or the black 

 tern, we pointed them out to the intelligent caretaker of the 

 University Rowing Club, with a wish that he would obtain 

 both birds if possible. On the next morning he waited on 

 us with two immature black terns, both killed with one shot. 

 The bill of one exhibited a curious malformation, the points 

 of both mandibles being crossed in a similar manner to the 

 crossbill. 



Their flight was very beautiful and buoyant, and their way 

 of feeding peculiar : flying above the smooth water in the 

 wake of a dredge-vessel, they returned backwards and for- 

 wards over the same place whilst we remained ; never enter- 

 ing the water, they seemed to skim it closely in the manner 

 of the black-headed gull, a fact likewise remarked by Dr. 

 C. Farren in a paper read before the members of the Dublin 

 Natural History Society, when a specimen in immature plu- 

 mage, obtained by that gentleman at Clonea, county of Wa- 

 terford, was exhibited to the meeting. 



In no instance found nidifying in Ireland, Sir W. Jardine, 

 in his work on British Birds, has unintentionally committed 

 an error when remarking : u In Ireland the black tern breeds 

 at a small lake at Roxburgh, near Middleton, Cork ;" a situa- 

 tion where, although observed during July, in different sea- 

 sons, by R. Ball, Esq., no instance of its breeding came under 

 his notice. 



More common in France during summer, it is described as 

 breeding in marshy situations, the nest at times being placed 

 upon the large leaves of nenuphar (Nymphcea luted), and 

 floating upon the water.* 



Habitat Eastern Europe. 



* Ornithologie Europe enne. 



