56 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



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

 near Crane Lake, Assa. 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. {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 haying eggs before the middle of June. 

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

 water and contain three eggs each. {^Raine.') 



This Tern is a summer resident in the St. Lawrence valley. In 

 the County of Leeds, Ont., I first noticed it near Gananoque Lake 

 in 1893, about six miles north of the St. Lawrence, where on the 

 7th July, I found a nest among the flags, containing three eggs on 

 the point of hatching. Each year since I have found two or three 

 nests in the same locality. The birds choose very wet, miry 

 places to lay in. Two nests were found on old musk-rat houses, 

 another on a log of wood in a pool far out in the marsh, 

 others in equally swampy places. Three completes the set of 

 eggs, which are usually laid between the 7th and 14th June. In 

 the spring of 1894 these birds were very plentiful ; since that time 

 not so much so. I noticed a number of them in the Bay of 

 Quinte in July, 1896, and Dr. C. K. Clarke, of Kingston, tells me 

 that a number of pairs nested in Cataraqui marsh in 1897. {Rev. 

 C.J. Young.) 



This species breeds in all the large marshes that I have visited 

 in Western Ontario, and nests on the dilapidated musk-rat houses 

 and other debris, laying from two to four eggs. ( W. Saunders.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



In our museum are three skins of this species. One of these 

 was shot on the Ottawa in 1885, and another at Toronto the same 

 year. The other specimen was taken at Indian Head, Assa., June 

 1892. 



There are seven eggs in the collection. Three were taken by 

 Mr. J. B. Tyrrell on Lake St. Martin, Man., and the others were 

 taken in a marshy lake nearCraneLake, Assa., on June 15th, 1894, 

 by Spreadborough. 



