BLACK TERN. 
3 
The Terns are nearly cosmopolitan in their distribution, as 
they are found in most of the seas of the Old and New Vt orlds. 
Many are marsh and river Terns, as will be seen m our 
enumeration of the British species. 
THE BLACK TERNS. GENUS HYDROCIIELIDON. 
Hydrochelidon, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. S^S- 
Type, H. nigra (Linn.). 
The Black Terns are only four in number, and three of these 
have occurred within our limits, namely, the White-winged 
Black Tern, the Whiskered Tern, and the Black Tern. The 
latter, H. nigra, is an Old World species of wide range, and is 
replaced in America by H. surmamensis, whiph is a darker 
bird with blacker feet, nesting in temperate North America, 
and extending to Central and South America in winter. 
I. THE BLACK TERN. HYDROCHELIDON NIGRA. 
Sterna nigra, Umn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 227 (1766); Seebohm, Hist. 
Brit. B. iii. p. 254 (1885). 
Jiydrochelidon nigra, Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 658 (1852); Dresser, 
B. Eur. viii. p. 327, pi. 592 (1876); B. O. U. List Brit. B. 
p. 185 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 
(1884); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 617 (1889); Idlford, Col. 
Fig. Brit. B. part xxxviii (1894); Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. 
Mus. XXV. p. 17 (1896). 
{Plate XCIV.) 
Nestling. Fawn colour above, with black markings arranged 
in pairs on the back and sides of the rump, with a single patch 
on the mantle ; the head with a line of black above each eye, 
and a triple line on the nape ; sides of face white ; the under 
surface of body clove-brown, becoming darker brown on the 
throat and sides of body. 
YMng in First Pimnage. — Differs from the winter plumage 
ot the adult in having all the feathers of the back and wings 
tipped with brown, this colour obscuring the whole of the 
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