274 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



moiis. He also exhibited two species bred from the galls of Lasiop- 

 tera juniperina — viz., Torymus juniperi (Lin.) — a species new 

 to Britain, and an undescribed species of Lygocerus, which it was 

 proposed to name L. juniperi. Mr. Cameron also showed a gall 

 of Aphilothrix clementinae, a species new to Britain, from Cadder. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — On the Skuas, particularly with reference to the recent occurrence 

 of the Pomatorhine Skua (Stercorarius pomatorhinus ), on the 

 Coasts of Scotland in unusual numbers. By Mr. J. J. 

 Dalgleisii, M.B.O.U. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, the eminent American ornithologist, in his 

 "Birds of the North-west, " published in 1874, divides the sub- 

 family of the Laridae known as the Stercorariinae or Skuas, into 

 two sub-genera, Buphagus (Moehring, 1752), for the heavy short- 

 tailed Great Skua and its antarctic rejoresentatives, and Stercorarius 

 for the three longer tailed species. Our latest and best recognised 

 British authority, however, on the Laridae (Mr. Howard Saunders), 

 following more strictly the British Association rules for nomen- 

 clature, rejects the former as being anterior to the 12th edition 

 of Linnaeus' Sy sterna Naturae (1766), and recognises one genus 

 only, that of Stercorarius. Of this he enumerates six species as 

 follows: — 



S. catarrhactes. S. pomatorhinus. 



S. antarcticus. S. crepidatus. 



S. chilensis. S. parasiticus. 



Of these, S. antarcticus and S. chilensis are confined to the 

 southern hemisphere. The former, which is widely distributed in 

 the Atlantic, to the south of latitude 29° south, was found breeding 

 at Kerguelen's Island, in 1874, by Dr. Kidder, the naturalist 

 attached to the American expedition sent to observe the transit of 

 Venus. He records that its habits partake of those of a buzzard, 

 feeding as it does nearly upon flesh, and that when shooting parties 

 were out, they had some difficulty in securing the ducks, etc., which 

 they shot, from being carried off. S. chilensis is seemingly 

 confined to the Pacific Coast of South America, and the Straits of 

 Magellan, probably breeding on the islands and shores of the 

 hitter. 



