CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 55 



no attempt at lining, which would be entirely unnecessary there. 

 About twenty pairs were found on this island and about forty 

 pairs on another island about i8 miles to the eastward. {Nelson.) 



-1^. Least Tern. 



Sterna antillarum (Less.) Coues. 1862. 

 Accidental on our Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes. 



Apparently very rare around Newfoundland. {Reeks.) Very 

 rare in Nova Scotia. One shot at Polly Bog. {Downs.) Audubon 

 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.) 



» 

 museum specimens. 



One specimen bought with Holman collection, locality un- 

 known. Three eggs procured from Mr. Raine. 



XXVIL HYDROCHELIDON Bore. 1822. 

 11. Black Tern. 



Hydrochelidon nigra surhuimensis (Gmel.) Stejn. 1882. 



Accidental in New Brunswick ; three shot at Grand Manan 

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

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

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

 ing abundantly in St. Clair Flats and marshes. Its chief breeding- 

 grounds, however, are the marshy districts of Manitoba and 

 eastern Assiniboia, where everj' marsh has many or few nests, and 

 westerly along the boundary to Waterton Lake and Lake Okana- 

 gan. B.C. It extends northwesterly in diminishing numbers, and 

 breeds in marshes. One nest was taken and reported by Dall at 

 Fort Yukon, in Alaska. We have never noticed it in the moun- 

 tains, 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 mid- 

 dle of June in Assiniboia ; usual number of eggs, three. On 



