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. 
Taken in Merced County 
Photo by the Author 
1461 
BREEDING HAUNT OF THE BLACK TERN 
