The Black Tern 
erstwhile pasture, offer all the requisites of stability, lightness, and con¬ 
venient size which the birds admire—for a season. But the disintegrating 
power of the circumambient water is invariably more rapid in action 
than are the processes of incubation, and the end of that lowly cradle 
is inevitably tragic. But the birds will not learn, and the houses erected 
upon these deceitful foundations are as numerous as ever the following 
year. 
Taken in Washington Photo by the Author 
NEST AND EGGS OF BLACK TERN 
THE EGGS ARE PLACED IN A USURPED NEST OF THE WESTERN GREBE’S 
Better taste was shown by a pair of these Terns which found a float¬ 
ing board-end, and proceeded to anchor it forthwith by sedge-stems broken 
down from either side. This with a turret of plaited stems made a bully 
house-boat, a cradle fitter than that of Moses. 
The chicks whose portraits appear on Page 1465 were brothers (?) 
picked up in a Los Banos swamp. They were industriously clambering 
over the moss when found, but they soon endeared themselves to our 
photographic heart by exhibiting a willingness to “stay put.” One, when 
placed upon the water, swam off vigorously until it encountered a small 
island of scum,whereupon it scrambled aboard and proceeded to settle 
14.66 
