The Black Tern 



blessings as alfalfa and barley and potatoes, not to mention strawberries 

 and oranges and avocadoes, we are never done praising the beneficence 

 of nature, assisted by the measured art of the engineer. But irrigation 

 may be lavish as well as stinted, and it is for the by-products of flooded 

 fields and rejuvenated morasses that the ornithologist finds himself most 

 thankful. And nature herself has been the great engineer in California. 

 Kern, Buena Vista, Tulare, Tahoe, Goose, Eagle, Honey, Tule, and 

 Klamath, these are the names not of "projects," but of natural catch- 

 basins whose annual levels are determined by the largess of the snows, 

 and whose overflowing borders, therefore, offer a boundless hospitality 

 to the birds. 



The Black Tern is the familiar spirit of all fresh-water swamps in 

 California north of the Tehachipe. Wherever water spreads itself not too 

 deeply to encourage vegetable growth, whether of sedge or typha or tule, 

 this restless, petulant, graceful water-sprite harries the face of nature, 

 pursues insects, chides intruders, builds adventurous rafts for the use of 

 his offspring, and otherwise conducts his Chlidonian business. 



__J 



Taken in Merced Com 



Photo by the Author 



BREEDING HAUNT OF THE BLACK TERN 



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