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294 



LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGU'ENNES. 



October and November it is one of the most common of the Terns seen in the harbor 

 of Beaufort, IST. C. 



In the summers of 1879 and 1880 Mr. Kidgway met with this species breeding in 

 considerable abundance about Cobb's Island, Ya. It was only less abundant than 

 the anr/lica, and quite as numerous as the hlrundo, but always found in different 

 situations from either — frequenting especially grassy marshes, in which it nests. 

 He found it pre-eminently a mamh Tern. It nested in company with, or in dose 

 proximity to, colonies of the Black-headed (iull. It could be readily distinguisln'd 

 from the Common Tern, whivh it closely lesembles when on the wing, by its grating, 

 monotonous note, which very closeb' resembles one frequently uttered by the 

 Loggerhead Shrike. 



In May, 1877, Dr. J. C. Merrill and Mr. Geo. B. Sennett found a colony of these 

 Terns nesting on a nearly submerged grassy ii^land among lagoons and marshes near 

 Fort Brown, Texas, The birds had but just begun to lay ; the nests were in depres- 

 sions in the short grass, and the eggs were frequently wet. Mr. Henshaw found this 

 species quite common at Utah Lake in the summer, where, as he also states, it breeds 

 along the shore. 



It has been taken at Lake Winnipeg l)y Mr. Donald Gunn, and also on Shoal Lake, 

 in Selkirk Settlement, and in Manitoba; and it may be found even farther to the 

 north than this ; but we have thus far no evidence to this effect; and the fact that 

 this species breeds in large numbers near the mouth of the Kio Grande, in Texas, 

 seems to demonstrate that it is a bird of the interior, and not particularly northern. 



Sir John Richardson — who in his account of what he presumed to be S. hlrundo 

 evidently had this bird in view — states that it does not breed farther north than 

 the fifty-seventh i)arallel. Its eggs — two, sometimes three, in number — are depos- 

 ited on a tuft of dry grass, upon sand, or among stones, and are hatched principally 

 by the heat of the sun, the bird sitting upon them only during the night, or in very 

 cold, cloudy, or stormy weather. This Tern is described as being very clamorous 

 when any one approaches the spot where it nests, flying toward the intruder, plun- 

 ging close to his head, then rising again with great velocity. In these evolutions the 

 bird's forked tail is sometimes spread out, but is more generally closed, so as to 

 appear pointed. It feeds principally upon small fish, which it picks up from shallow 

 water on the wing. The length of its wings and tail and the shortness of its legs 

 much impede its movements on the ground. It is supposed by Kichardson to pass its 

 winters south of the limits of the United States. It appears, so far as is known, to 

 breed exclusively in the neighborhood of inland water, in the marshes borderini; 

 small lakes, ponds, and sluggish streams. 



Mr. Gunn, who found it breeding in large numbers on the borders of Lake 

 Winnipeg in the latter part of May, and afterward on the border of Shoal Lake, at 

 Selkirk Settlement, and at ^Manitoba, in his notes relative to Shoal Lake makes no 

 other mention of it than what is contained in these words : " Saw Forster's Terns in 

 considerable numbers ; their nests were among the reeds." 



In the spring and summer of 1873 Mr. Thure Kumlien found this species breeding 

 in considerable numbers on the borders of Lake Koskonong, in Southern Wisconsin. 

 The uests were built among the thick reeds which cover its marshy shores, and were 

 constructed, with considerable care, of coarse flags and stems of water- pla*its, am! 

 lined with finer reeds. The nests were raised above the ground — evidently to avoid 

 the danger of being flooded by a rise of the lake. The eggs were three in numbei', 

 and similar in size, shape, and general appearance to those of the common S. hlrundo. 

 Mr. Kumlien informs me that this species is much more common than the hlrundo 



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