62 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
first place where the terns had made a demonstration. All the time we were within 
seventy-five or eighty yards of the nest the birds circled about over us, sometimes 
poising almost motionless wdth rapidly beating wings, and continually uttering the 
characteristic shrill Black Tern cry. We did not see the birds alight a single time, 
so when we saw one fly up from among the rushes, not more than thirty feet from 
us, we went to the spot, and there was the nest. It was built on a dense carpet of 
dead cat-tails, blown over by the wind, forming a smooth, level and perfectly dry 
mat, upon which the nest and eggs, though small, show^ed conspicuously, even 
from a distance of fifteen or twenty feet. The nest proper was very similar to the 
nests of the Forster Tern though smaller; made entirely of short pieces of dead 
cat-tail blades, rather slightly 
cupped but compactly built. It 
was located about ten feet from 
the low boggy shore, in a sparse- 
ly covered spot amongst dense 
cat-tail growth and over not more 
than six inches ofw'ater.” 
On May 30, 1908, we were 
more fortunate, finding two nests 
within a short distance of each 
other after a very brief search. 
The first nest was of the usual 
construction, and was built on a 
large circular wooden top of a 
duck blind, which was , floating 
ju.st at the edge of the cat-tails, 
in a small rush-bound pond. It 
contained two eggs and was ren- 
dered very conspicuous by its 
peculiar location. The water at 
this spot was almost waist deep. 
Not far away the second nest was 
found “built on a mass of dead 
floating cat-tails” and made en- 
tirely of dead browui cat-tail 
blades, fairly well cupped and 
containing three eggs. In both 
cases the birds ^were very noisy 
and demonstrative, and we quick- 
Eig. 28. NE.s'riNG SITE OK BLACK TERN; EGGS MAv BE j located their nests by their 
SEEN IN LOWER CENTER OF PICTURE 
actions. 
Other work prevented us from observing these nests during the period of in- 
cubation and from studying the young, but the appearance and habits of the young 
birds would in all probability vary but little from those of the young Forster Terns 
with which we were somewhat familiar. 
The most baffling (piestion with which we were confronted was whether or not 
only a very small part of the summer residents nested. It hardly seems possible 
that only a few birds of the hundreds seen by us on nearly every trip were breed- 
ing, 3"et on the other hand, it is hard to believe that our careful search over all the 
most suitable ground, would fail to discover the nests if they were nesting in large 
numbers. 
