58 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



reported it abundant and breeding on the coast of Labrador. 

 {Packard) Occasionally taken on Lake Erie and the south- 

 western corner of Lake Ontario. {Mcllwraith.) 



XXVIL HYDEOCHELIDON Boie. 1822. 

 77. Black Tern. 



Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis (Gmel.) Stejn. 1882. 



Accidental in New Brunswick ; three shot at Grand Manan, 

 August, 1879. {Boardman.) A few taken at Quebec. {Dionne.) 

 It is a common spring and autumn migrant in Ontario, but more 

 common west of Toronto. Saunders and Morden report it breed- 

 ing abundantly on St. Clair flats and marshes. Its chief breeding- 

 grounds, however, are the marshy districts of Manitoba and 

 eastern Saskatchewan, where every marsh has many or few nests, 

 and westerly along the boundary to Waterton lake and Lake 

 Okanagan, B.C. It extends northwesterly in diminishing num- 

 bers, and breeds in marshes. They were seen by Spreadborough 

 on Lesser Slave lake, Alta., and one nest was taken and reported 

 by Dall at Fort Yukon, Alaska. We have never noticed it in 

 the Rocky mountains, but Fannin observed it on Burrard inlet. 

 Gulf of Georgia, in January, 1882, and also in the interior of 

 mainland. 



Breeding Notes. — Abundant at Raeburn, Manitoba and at 

 Buffalo lake. Alberta. Specimens and eggs taken at both locali- 

 ties. {Dippie.) Nests very small, floating upon the water among 

 the grass in sloughs and marshes. Begins to breed about the 

 middle of June in Saskatchewan; usual number of eggs, three. 

 On June 15th, 1894, saw a number of their nests in a marshy lake 

 near Crane lake, Sask. The nest was a few pieces of rushes with 

 a little grass mixed in to keep it from floating apart and letting 

 the eggs fall through. Some of the nests were so small and so 

 much sunken that the eggs were about one quarter in the water. 

 Found breeding in 1904 in a marsh about nine miles south of 

 Albany, James bay. {Spreadborough) 



I found it breeding at Long lake and Shoal lake in Manitoba. 

 It also breeds plentifully at Swan lake in northern Alberta. It is 

 a late breeder, seldom having eggs before the middle of June. 

 The nests are usually built on dead, floating rushes in shallow 

 water and contain three eggs each. {Raine.) 



