THE BLACK TERN. 
811 
ferring fresh-water marslies to the shores of the sea ; hence, 
in the works of some naturalists they constitute a distinct 
genus. Macgillivray does not find that they present such 
differences in the bill or feet, or even in their wings or tail, 
as would fully justify a distinction of this kind. lie, there- 
fore, admits the genus, only with doubt, being unable to 
define it with precision. The first of the species above- 
named is about eleven inches and a half in length ; the 
hind neck, breast, and abdomen, are greyish black ; the 
upper parts dark bluish grey ; the bill black, feet dark 
reddish brown. The wings extend about two inches beyond 
the tail. 
The Black Tern is of very extensive distribution, 
it having been found in Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, 
France, and Italy ; the Caucasus, Madeira, and the United 
States of America. It resides in marshes, and on the 
margins of lakes and rivers ; and, according to Temminck, 
is very numerous in Holland, and the great marshes of 
Hungary. In England it appears to have been much more 
plentiful than it now is ; some of its principal breeding- 
places having been entirely drained. It is still, however, 
found in Kent, Lincolnshire, and occasionally in other 
counties in England, where it arrives in the beginning of 
May, and whence it departs about the end of September. 
Montagu describes the flight of the Black Tern as ^ not 
unlike that of the goatsucker; its evolutions are rapid, 
and its turns short, by which means it sometimes escapes 
the talons of predacious birds.' Of this he once wit- 
nessed an instance in which the Tern avoided the deadly 
stroke of a Peregrine, which pounced on him fi:om a 
superior elevation repeatedly, without success. 
About the middle of May this species prepares a nest of 
flags, or broad grass, in the most marshy places, upon a 
tuft just above the surface of the water, and lays almost 
invariably four eggs, which Yarrell describes as of a dark 
olive brown, blotched and spotted with black. 
The second and third of the above-named species are both 
very rare birds with us, only one specimen of each having, we 
believe, been taken in this country ; the former is described 
by Temminck as inhabiting the bays and gulfs of the 
