not go into any details concerning them in this place.
I have seen hundreds of the eggs of this bird at various
limes in Leadenhall Market, received there from the
marshes of the Netherlands with those of many other
species.
In common with all the other European members of
the marsh or freshwater-Tern family, this species lives
principally upon various insects and leeches; tadpoles
are also favourite morsels. I have met with the Black
Tern in small numbers in various parts of the Mediterranean,
and also in Switzerland, and found one pair,
with their nest and eggs, in close vicinity to a colony of
Common Terns on an islet of one of the brackish
lagoons of Sardinia. In my experience this bird is a
somewhat scarce vernal migrant to the Ionian Islands,
where it makes no stay, nor did I find it breeding on the
mainland opposite to these islands, although there was
no lack of apparently very suitable localities in Epirus
and Albania. Mr. H. Saunders states that the winter
range of this Tern is scarcely known to extend beyond
North Africa, Egypt, and Palestine; but that it is
of tolerably general diffusion in the breeding-season
throughout Europe from Southern Sweden southwards.