BLACK TERN. 668 



Sydroehelidon phimbea, Wheaton, Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1860, 371 ; Reprint, 1861, 13. 

 Bydroehelidonfissipes, Whbaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1874, 575 ; Ke- 



priut, 1875, 14. 

 Sydroohelidon Iwiformia, Langdon, Cat. Birds ot Cin., 1877, 18 ; Revised List, Jonm. 



Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 187 ; Reprint, 31 ; Summer Birds, ib., iii, 1880, 229.— 



DuRT and Freeman, ib., iii, 1880, 104 ; Reprint, 5. 

 Black Tern, Audubon, Orn. Biog., iii, 1835, 98. 

 Short-tailed Tern, Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 



Mallus lariformis, Linn^us, Syst. Nat,, i, 1758, 153. 

 Sterna nigra, Brisson, Orn., vi, 1860, 211. 

 Hydrochelidon nigra, Boie, Isis, 1822, 563. 

 Sterna plunibea, Wilson, Am. Orn., vii, 1813, 83. 

 Sydroehelidon plmmbea, Lawrence, Birds Am., 1858, 864. 

 Sterna fiseipea, LiNNisus, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 228. 

 Sydroehelidon fissipes, Coues, Proc. Phil. Acad., 1862, 554. 

 Sydroohelidon lanformis, Coubs, Birds N. W., 1874, 704. 



Adnlt in breeding plumage ; head, neck and under parts, uniform jet-black ; back, 

 ■wrings and tail plumbeous; primaries unstriped; crissum pure white; bill black. In 

 winter and young birds, the black is mostly replaced by white on the forehead, sides of 

 head and under parts, the crown, occiput and neck behind, with the sides under the 

 wings, being dusky-gray ; a dark auricular patch and another before the eye ; in a very 

 early stage, the upper-parts are varied with dull brown. Small ; wing, 8-9, little less 

 than the whole length of the bird ; tail, 3J, simply forked ; bill, 1-li; tarsus, f ; middle 

 toe and claw, 1-J. 



Habitat, Europe, &c. North America generally. Alaska. Middle America. South 

 America and Chili. Breeds at large in North America. Winters chiefly or entirely ex- 

 tralimital. 



Common summer resident in Northern Ohio, and common spring and 

 fall migrant in other parts of the State. 



In this vicinity the Black or Short-tailed Tern is the most numerous 

 and regular species of the sub-family while on the migrations, and may 

 be seen on the rivers, ponds or canals. I have never known it to breed 

 here, however. Mr. Langdon gives the following observations of them 

 in the breeding season, in Ottawa county (Summer Birds, 1. c.) : 



"A very common summer resident in the marsh ; nesting, or rather laying its eggs on 

 the islands of decaying vegetation and mud formed by sunken muskrat houses. Three 

 eggs constitute a full set, and they are apparently rolled about in the mud purposely, 

 until well coated, so as to hide the markings and thereby make them less conspicuous. 

 In two or three instances only did we observe any attempt at a nest, and these would 

 not have been recognized as such without the eggs, consisting as they did of merely a 

 few fragments of grass or bulrushes so disposed as to prevent the eggs from rolling ; in 

 most cases the eggs rested in a slight depression on the bare mud. The sun appears to be 

 their chief incubator, although the decaying vegetation of which the abandoned musk- 

 rat houses consist, doubtless plays some part in the process. In no instance did we 

 succeed in flushing ^ bird from the eggs, although they would appear in pairs to the num- 

 ber of twenty or thirty and hover about within a few feet of our heads making a great 



