Todd : Birds of Erie and Presque Isle. 507 



in the season the terns were often found scattered over the bay resting 

 by preference on pieces of floating driftwood. While there is no 

 present intimation that this species ever bred in the immediate vicinity 

 of Erie, such may readily have been the case in former years, before 

 the city had grown to any size. Mr. Bacon states that as a rule none 

 are seen after May 25, although in 1903 he saw a single individual 

 on June 15, and a pair on June 4, 1904. The nearest point where 

 the Common Tern is actually known to nest would appear to be Big 

 Chicken Island, off Put-in-Bay, Ohio, where Mr. E. B. Williamson 

 of Bluffton, Indiana, in a letter to the writer dated February 14, 

 1901, states that he collected numerous sets of their eggs on June 30, 

 1896. The probabilities are that the terns found at Erie breed to the 

 northeast, on Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence. For the return 

 movement August 8 (1903) is the earliest recorded appearance, but 

 this is exceptional, according to Mr. Bacon's experience. Thus, we 

 did not meet with it in the fall of 1900 until August 28, when a flock 

 of about thirty was noticed on the bay. It was found in greater or 

 less numbers from that date until September 26, but no very large 

 flocks, such as were met with in the spring, were observed. At this 

 season it frequented the main lake as well as Erie Bay, and was often 

 found associated with the Black Tern during the period of abundance 

 of the latter species. 



[Sterna dougalli. Roseate Tern. 



A maritime species of only casual occurrence in the interior. Dr. J. M. Wheaton 

 includes it as a bird of Lake Erie in Ohio on the authority of Mr. Winslow ( Birds 

 of Ohio, 1882, 562). 



Sterna antillarum. Least Tern. 



' Certainly breeds at St. Clair Flats,' according to Dr. W. C. Brownell (Cook, 

 Birds of Michigan, 1893, 30), and, if so, it may stray eastward along Lake Erie.] 



14. Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis. Black Tern. 



Dr. Warren states {Birds of -Pennsylvania, 1890, 23) that "Dr. 

 John W. Detwiller . . . writes me, that, some years ago he ' procured 

 eggs of the Black Tern upon drift-wood on Lake Erie, near Erie city. ' 



. . I am not aware that they are now known to breed anywhere in 

 the neighborhood of Erie county or elsewhere in our state. ' ' While there 

 is nothing intrinsically improbable in the breeding of the Black Tern 

 here in former years, as, indeed, it does today (or at least as recently 

 as 1896, as the writer is informed by Mr. E. B. Williamson), near San- 

 dusky, Ohio, it has been shown that the late Dr. Detwiller was an 



