The Black Tern 
oozy recesses of an undisturbed swamp, preferably in a flat-boat. Here 
in some secluded stretch the birds will hover about the intruder, fretting 
and screaming incessantly. If the water becomes too thick with mud 
and tangled vegetation to admit 
of easy passage, one must be con¬ 
tent to strip off and wade through 
black water, say six inches deep, 
over black mud one and a half 
feet deep, and be prepared as well 
for occasional plunges into un¬ 
charted depths. When one gets 
“hot” in this ancient game 
of hide-the-thimble, the 
most interested pair of 
Taken near Los Banos 
Photo by the Author 
BLACK TERNS A-WING 
birds will single themselves out from the hovering throng and prepare 
for defense. Unless their advances are early discouraged, the boldness 
of these two will increase until they actually strike the intruder on the 
head, to say nothing of frequent salutations with flying shearn. At the 
same time the characteristic cry, krik, krik —lighter in character than 
that of the Forster Tern, but still guttural and harsh—is flatted by anger 
into kra-ack, kra-ack. 
1463 
