io ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



hagen, records that in ancient days the island of Skuce, which 

 probably derived its name from the bird, produced 6000 young of 

 the Great Skua yearly. He mentions that they were very numerous 

 at one time on the islands of Vaagoe and Stromoe. Svabo, observ- 

 ing the rapacious habits of the Great Skua, and the damage they did 

 to the Fuglebergs by destroying both the eggs and young of the sea- 

 fowl breeding in the rock-nurseries, suggested that they should be 

 taxed as birds of prey, and his recommendations were acted on, and 

 the Great Skua became incorporated in the "black-list," two bills of 

 this species being adjudged the equivalent of one of the Raven. 

 During recent years the laws relating to Nccbbetold in the Faroes, 

 which obliged every man entering a boat (the equivalent of every 

 able-bodied man throughout the islands) to deliver yearly to the 

 authorities the bills of a Raven, or one Raven's brood, the bills of 

 two Crows, or two Great Black-backed Gulls, or two Great Skuas, have 

 been repealed, and a small reward is paid to the bringer of the bills 

 of birds in the." black-list " by the Sysselmand, on behalf of the com- 

 munity. In the year 1872 I visited the Faeroes, and subsequently 

 gave a list of the birds in the "Zoologist" for the same year. In 

 that paper I referred to the diminution in the numbers of the Great 

 Skua, and pointed out that before many years had elapsed that noble 

 bird would be exterminated as a breeding species ; I even hazarded 

 the opinion that probably in the course of another ten years the 

 Great Skua would no longer be found breeding in the Faroes. I am 

 happy to say that my predictions have not yet been fulfilled to the 

 letter, but I do not think the extermination of this grand species can 

 be much longer delayed. In 1872 I attempted to make a list of the 

 then breeding places and the number of pairs nesting in each 

 locality. I enumerated seven breeding stations with about forty 

 nesting pairs, but I think I rather under-estimated the number ; I 

 certainly overlooked one breeding station in Stromce, and probably 

 if I had given the number of pairs nesting throughout the islands in 

 1872 as fifty, I should have been very near the mark. After a 

 lapse of twenty years I revisited the Faroes, and passed the month of 

 June 1892 there. I was struck by the general diminution in the 

 bird-life from what I remembered twenty years before, but was 

 pleased to learn that the local legislature had realised the fact, 

 and stringent laws had been passed to protect the birds, eggs, 

 and young of all the species, not included in the " black-list," which 

 nest in the Faroes. These regulations are subsidiary to the old 

 laws relating to the " Fuglebergs." In many instances both the 

 Great and Richardson's Skua were shot down for bait by the fisher- 

 men. I again visited the Faroes in July and August of 1893, and 

 passed four weeks amongst those islands. During the whole of my 

 visit I did not see a single Great Skua on the wing. I was informed 

 that they no longer bred on either the Great or Little Dimon ; that 



