64 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
sand, with little or no nesting material. The eggs are white, buffy-white 
or buff, variously spotted with gray, brown and purplish, and average 
1.28 by .91 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
The adult in summer seems almost a miniature of the Common Tern, having nearly the 
same proportions, with the same slender, forked tail, and the same general pattern of col- 
oration. Closer comparison, however, shows that the present species has the forehead 
and a short extension backward over the eye pure white, the lores and crown black, mantle 
and upper surface of tail pearl-gray, and under parts entirely white. The bill is yellow, 
usually tipped with black, and the feet are orange. In winter most of the black of 
the head is replaced with gray or white, only the occiput remaining black; the yellow bill 
and feet also may become duller or paler, but never black. The young of the year besides 
having shorter outer tail feathers (which are common to all young terns), has the upper 
parts more or less spotted and mottled with buff and black, and the tail feathers similarly 
blotched near the ends. ; 
Length of adult, 9 inches; wing, 6.75 to 7.00; tail, 3.50 (forked for at least 14 inches); cul- 
men, 1.10. 
25. Black Tern. Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis (Gmel.). (77) 
Synonyms: Short-tailed Tern, Sterna surinamensis, Gmel., 1789.—Hydrochelidon 
surinamensis, Bonap., 1856.—H. plumbea, Lawr., 1858.—Sterna plumbea, Wils., 1813. 
Sterna nigra, Sw. & Rich., 1831, Nutt., 1834, Aud., 1835.—Hydrochelidon lariformis suri- 
namensis, Ridgw., 1881. 
Readily distinguished by its small size, black body, and black bill. The 
tail also is much less forked than in the other common terns, which has 
given it the name Short-tailed Tern. 
Distribution.—Temperate and tropical America. From Alaska and the 
fur countries to Brazil and Chili, breeding from the middle United States 
west of the Alleghanies northward. 
An abundant bird during the summer in all suitable places, at least 
throughout the Lower Peninsula. It seems to prefer the marshy edges 
of rivers and lakes, or the marshes themselves, provided they have open 
pools here and there. It breeds abundantly along the Detroit River and 
St. Clair Flats, the St. Clair River, Saginaw Bay and numerous points in 
the interior of the state. It arrives from the south early in May and 
remains until after the first of September (Swales). Doubtless in: some 
seasons it comes earlier and remains much later. It nests in large or small 
communities, placing its two or three eggs on mats or windrows of floating 
vegetation, or sometimes on a floating plank or log; the nest usually is 
only a hollow in the vegetation, although sometimes the materials appear 
to be slightly arranged. 
The eggs are similar to those of the other terns, but commonly more 
heavily spotted, the ground color being pale olive. Eggs average 1.35 
by .98 inches. The young and adults after the nesting season lose much 
of their dark color, and when seen at a little distance may be readily mis- 
taken for the Least Tern, especially by one who has never seen the latter 
species in life. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
The Black Tern in adult plumage can hardly be confounded with any other bird, being 
so dark all over as to appear sooty-black at a little distance. Winter adults and young, 
however, show much white, but can always be separated from the Least Tern by the black 
bill and feet and the comparatively short and slightly forked tail. The adult in summer 
is entirely black or dark slate-color except the under tail-coverts which are white, and 
