AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 355 



BLACK TERN. 



A. O. U. No. 77. (Hyclrochelidon iiigra surinamensis) 



RANGE. , 



Found throug-h the whole of temperate America from Alaska south- 

 ward into South America. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, 9.5 in.; extent, 24 in.; tail, 3.7 in., forked for about one inch. 

 Adults in summer: — Head, neck and under parts black; whole back, 

 wings and tail lead gray; primaries are black, frosted with white; un- 

 der tail coverts are white. Winter adult: — Forehead, sides of head, 

 neck all around, and entire under parts white. Crown grayish, shad- 

 ing to darker off hind head and continuing as a bar through the eye; 

 upper parts paler than in summer and the feathers with white edgings. 

 Young: — Similar to the winter adult but the upper parts are brownish 

 and the sides of breast and body are washed with gray. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



Black Terns breed chiefly in the interior in reedy marshes. The 

 eggs are very commonly deposited on the little islands of decayed 

 vegetation found floating in such localities. When built in the marsh 

 grass a slight nest is built of the dead grass. The eggs are laid from 

 the latter part of May to well into July, and frequently two broods are 

 raised in a season. Three eggs comprise the full set. The ground 

 color varies from greenish to brownish and they are heavily blotched 

 with brown and fainter traces of lilac. 



HABITS. 



The pretty little Black Terns, which next to the Least Tern are the 

 smallest that we have, are very common in the interior portions of the 

 country. In April and May, upon the approach of the breeding season 

 they congregate in large flocks about the reedy sloughs of the West. 

 Here they attend the duties of nesting, caring for the young, and in- 

 structing them in the arts of flying until the middle or latter part of 

 October when the greater part of them have left for warmer localities 

 in which to pass the winter. During migrations they fly chiefly at 



