708 HYDROCHELIDON NIGRA, WHITE-WINGED TERN. 



often fluttering within a few feet of one's head, and then sailing off 

 again, in the manner of Swallows. The flight is buoyant in the extreme, 

 and wayward, desultory, uncertain ; perhaps no bird of this country has 

 so great an expanse of wing for its weight, and certainly none fly more 

 lightly. In hovering along on the lookout for insects, they hold the bill 

 pointing straight downward, like others of the family. In the sijring 

 I have observed them plunging, like other Terns, into the water for food, 

 probably small fry, but in the fall they seem to feed chiefly on vinged 

 insects, which they capture like Mght-hawks, as noted above. 



The Black Tern I have found breeding in various parts of the West. 

 On the 10th of June, 1864, I passed a large colony which h-id settled on 

 a marshy tract along the Arkansas River, near Fort Lyons. The birds 

 were all in full plumage, and doubtless had eggs at the time, although, 

 from the untoward circumstances of observation — hurried traveling by 

 stage — I could not examine the nesting places as I wished. In June 

 again, 1873, 1 found a colony breeding in a prairie slough along the Eed 

 Eiver; shot the greater part of the whole number, and secured many 

 eggs. The birds were breeding in company with a great number of 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, some Eed-wings, and Short-billed Marsh 

 Wrens. The eggs, in every instance, were placed on masses of floating 

 debris of last year's reeds, where the water was two or three feet deep, 

 in the midst of the slough. They had to be closely looked after, for 

 they were laid directly on the moist matting, without any nest in any 

 instance, and readily eluded observation, from their similarity in color 

 to the bed of reeds they rested on. They were two, oftener three, in 

 number, and resembled those of some Sandpipers in size, shape, and 

 coloration. The shape is pointedly pyriform, yet with considerable 

 bulge at the sides; the dimensions, 1.35 by 0.95, with the usual varia- 

 tion either way. The ground color is brownish-olive, rather light and 

 clear, this thickly marked with spots and blotches of every size, from 

 mere points up to masses, but for the most part large and bold, with a 

 tendency to aggregate at the but, or, at least, around the larger half of 

 the egg. ]Sro part of the surface, however, is nnspotted. The coloration 

 is a rich, warm brown, of every shade, from light brown to blackish- 

 brown, according to the quantity of pigment. With these markings are 

 associated a few neutral tints or stone-gray spots, in the shell. 



HYDEOCHELIDON NIGEA, (Linn.) Gray. 

 White-winged Blncli Tern. 



sterna atrieapilla, Briss., Orn. vi, 1760, 214. 



Sterna nigra, Linn., Fn. Suec. 56, No. 159 ; Syst. Nat. i. 1766, 227.— Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 



608.— Lath., Ind. Orn. ii, 1790, 810 (quotes S. atrieapilla, Briss., vi, 214). 



(Not of Briss., nor of many authors.) 

 Hijdroelieli'lou viqra, Gray, Gen. of B. iii, 1849, 660 ; List Br. B. 1863, 243 ; Hanil-list, iii, 



1871, 121, No. 11070.— Blas., J. f. 0. 1866, 82. 

 Sterna lev.eoptera, Meisner, Vog. Schweiz. 1815,264.— TEJUt., Man. ii, 1820, 747.— Naum., 



Y. D. X, l-!40, 215, pi. 257.— Keys. & Blas., AVirb. Eur. 1840, 98.— .«chl., Eev. 



Grit. 1844, 131.— McCoy, Ann. Mag. N. H. 1845, 271.— CouES, Check-list, 1874, 



No. 575 his (first introduced into Fauua N. Am. ; spec, in Mus. Smiths. Inst., 



from Wisconsin, T. KnmMn, through Dr. Sreu-ej-). 

 Sterna {Hydrodlielidon) leitcoptcra, Schrenck, Reise, 511.— Eadde, Reisen, ii, 1863, 389. 

 Hi/drochelidon leueoptera, BoiE, Isis, 18-^2, 563.— Kacp, .Sk. Ent. Eur. Thierw. 1829, 109. — 



Brehm, V. D. 18:n, 796. 

 Firalva leneoptera, Leach, Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii, 1826, 170. 

 Sterna Jissipes, Pall., Zoog. R. A. ii, 1811, 338. (Adult. Not of authors; quotations of 



tiaefissipes, hut description unmistakably of this species.) 

 Sterna naria, Pall., Zoog. R. A. ii, 337. (Young. Not of authors ; identified on same 



grounds as the preceding.) 



