BLACK TERN. 568 
Hydrochelidon plumbea, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 371; Reprint, 1861, 13. 
Hydrochelidon fissipes, WHEATON, Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 575 ; Re- 
print, 1875, 14. 
Hydrochelidon lariformis, LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877,18; Revised List, Journ. 
Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 187; Reprint, 21; Summer Birds, ib., iii, 1880, 229.— 
DuRY and FREEMAN, ib., iii, 1880, 104 ; Reprint, 5. 
Black Tern, AUDUBON, Orn. Biog., iii, 1835, 98. 
Short-tailed Tern, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Ratlus lariformis, LINNAZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1758, 153. 
Sterna nigra, BRISSON, Orn., vi, 1860, 211. 
Hydrochelidon nigra, Born, Isis, 1822, 563. 
Sterna plumbea, WILSON, Am. Orn., vii, 1813, 83. 
Hydrochelidon plumbea, LAWRENCE, Birds Am., 1858, 864. 
Sterna fissipes, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 228. 
Hydrochelidon fissipes, COUES, Proc. Phil. Acad., 1862, 554. 
Hydrochelidon lariformis, COUES, Birds N. W., 1574, 704. 
Adult in breeding plumage; head, neck and under parts, uniform jet-black ; back, 
wings and tail plumbeous; primaries unstriped; crissum pure white; bill black. In 
winter and young birds, the black is mostly replaced by white on the forehead, sides of 
head and under paris, the crown, occiput and neck behind, with the sides under the 
wings, being dusky-gray ; a dark auricular patch and another before the eye; in a very 
early stage, the upper-parts are varied with dull brown. Small; wing, 8-9, little less 
than the whole length of the bird; tail, 34, simply forked ; bill, 1-14; tarsus,?; middle 
toe and claw, 14. 
Habitat, Europe, &c. North Ameriea generally, Alaska. Middle America. South 
America and Chili. Breeds at large in North America. Winters chiefly or entirely ex- 
tralimital. 
Common summer resident in Northern Ohio, and common spring and 
fall migrant in other parts of the State. 
In this vicinity the Black or Short-tailed Tern is the most numerous 
and regular species of the sub-family while on the migrations, and may 
be seen on the rivers, ponds or canals. I have never known it to breed 
here, however. Mr. Langdon gives the following observations of them 
in the breeding season, in Ottawa county (Summer Birds, |. c.): 
‘“‘A very common summer resident in the marsh; nesting, or rather laying its eggs on 
the islands of decaying vegetation and mud formed by sunken muskrat houses. Three 
eggs constitute a full set, and they are apparently rolled about in the mud purposely, 
until well coated, so as to hide the markings and thereby make them less conspicuous. 
in two or three instances only did we observe any attempt at a nest, and these would 
not have been recognized as such without the eggs, consisting as they did of merely a 
few fragments of grass or bulrushes so disposed as to prevent the eggs from rolling 5 in 
most cases the eggs rested in a slight depression on the baremud. The sun appears to be 
their chief incubator, although the decaying vegetation of which the abandoned musk- 
rat houses consist, doubtless plays some part in the process, In no instance did we 
succeed in flushing a bird from the eggs, although they would appear in pairs to the num- 
bor of | twenty or thirty and hover about within a few feet of our heads making a great 
