CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 57 



78. White-winged Black Tern. 



Hydrochelidon leucoptcra (Meissn. &Schinz.) Boie. 1822. 



Six specimens of this species, or rather what I believed to be 

 this species, were seen for hours one morning about the last of 

 August, 1 88 1, flying over a lake on the western flank of Porcupine 

 Mountains in northwestern Manitoba. One of the birds was shot, 

 but owing to our difificulties at the time (we were hauling our 

 boats over a height of land) it spoiled before it was skinned. 



On June gth, 1896, I again had the good fortune to see a pair 

 of these birds, which were evidently mated, but after watching 

 them for an hour I could find no nest. They were circling around 

 a small marshy pool across the road opposite to the entrance to 

 the Experimental Farm at Brandon, Manitoba. I had no gun, and 

 when I returned six weeks afterwards I saw no signs of terns 

 around the pool. 



I take the following from my note-book, written at the time. 

 " To-day was again surprised by seeing a pair of Black Terns 

 with the bends of both wings evidently quite white. I watched 

 them for a long time and found them to be identical with those 

 I saw by the pool at Stony Mountain on the 4th inst. When the 

 bird rested and its wings closed it seemed to have a white collar 

 around the black head. There was a marked contrast between the 

 plumbeous back, the white collar and the black head." On June 

 4th I saw a number of specimens circling over a pool by the road- 

 side not far from the hotel at Stony Mountain, 14 miles from 

 Winnipeg, Manitoba. The white was on the be7id of both wings in 

 all the birds seen. {Macou?i. 



Family VI. RYNCHOPIDiE. Skimmers. 

 XXVIII. RTNCHOPS Linn^us. 1758. 

 80. Black Skimmer. 



Rynchops nigra Linn. 1758. 



Accidental on the South Atlantic coast. A large flock seen in 

 the Bay of Fundy, 1879. {Boardman) 



