Periodical 
visitant. 
Nest, &e. 
478 NATATORES. STERNA. TERN. 
Ornith. Dict. and Sup.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, ed. 1826, p. t. 195.—Flem. 
Br. Anim. 1. 144. No. 236. 
Black Viralve, Shaw’s Zool. 13. 167. pl. 19. 
Stern, Rennie’s Mont. Orn. Dict. 495. 
Sterna neevia, Linn. Syst. 1. 228. 5.—Gmel. Syst. 1. 609.—Briss. Orn. 6. 
216. 6. t. 20. f. 2. 
Sterna Boysii, var. B. Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 806. sp. 10. 
La Guifette, Buff: Ois. 8. 339.—Id. Pl. Enl. 924. 
Die Gefleckte Meerschwalbe, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 4. 688. 
Kamtschatkan Tern, Arct. Zool. 2. 525, A.—Lath. Syn. 6. 358. 9. var. A. 
Provincrat—Clovenfoot Gull, Scarecrow, Car Swallow. 
Tue Black Tern differs from the species already described 
in preferring the lakes and pools of the interior of the 
country to the waters of the ocean, and in subsisting upon 
Libellule, and other aquatic insects, in preference to fish. 
For these reasons, and from a slight difference of form in the 
tail, which is rather less forked, Mr SrerHeEns has separated 
this and some other species, under the generic title of Vi- 
ralva, from the Terns already described ; but as no marked 
characters of distinction are displayed in those essential mem- 
bers, the bill and legs ; and as the habits of the present (ex- 
cept in the points above stated) are very similar to those of 
the before described species, I have retained the whole under 
the Linnean genus Sterna. Like the foregoing, the present 
bird is migratory, being a regular summer visitant ; its arri- 
val in the fenny parts of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, 
and in the pools of Romney Marsh, in Kent, taking place 
towards the end of April, or the beginning of May, and in- 
cubation commences soon afterwards.—It breeds among 
sedges or other aquatic herbage, making, according to Mon- 
TaGu, a nest of similar vegetable matter on a grassy tuft, just 
above the surface of the water; and Tremmincx further 
states that the site is frequently the expansive floating leaf of 
the Water Lily (Nymphaea alba). The eggs, from two to 
four in number, are of an oil-green colour, tinged with wood- 
brown, and blotched all over with deep umber-brown, in 
size one-third less than those of the Common and Arctic 
Terns. The appearance of the Black Tern in this country 
is principally confined to the districts above mentioned, and 
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