236 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



It is a bird of rather curious habits. When intent on feeding, 

 it may be seen flying about, watching the Common Gulls and 

 K it ti wakes in their attempts to catch fish. Whenever one of 

 the latter manages to secure a fish, the Skua immediately gives 

 chase, and buffets the poor bird with such violence as to compel 

 it to drop the fish, which the Skua catches before it reaches 

 the water. 



On 4th June, 1904, when on the Island of Yell in the 

 Shetlands, I had for the first time an opportunity of seeing this 

 species inland. We were walking over to West Sand wick at the 

 time, and on catching sight of the bird we at once followed it, 

 and found it perched on a mossy knoll. It then flew away, and 

 disappeared behind a distant ridge. Having followed it, we 

 came upon the pair of birds on a patch of flat mossy ground 

 behind the ridge where the first Skua had disappeared. They 

 speedily showed by their actions that they had a nest close at 

 hand, as they began to swoop at us, always making the attack 

 from behind. When we approached more closely, the birds 

 alighted on the ground, sat on their tails, and propelled 

 themselves along the surface by flapping their wings, as though 

 they had been wounded and were unable to fly. We soon found 

 the nest, which was but a slight hollow scooped in the moss, and 

 lined with a few r bits of grass. It contained two eggs. 



Next day we visited a colony of these birds. This was in a 

 wild stretch of country, studded with lochs, in the north part of 

 the island. They were not nesting close together, but each pair 

 had a patch of ground reserved for themselves ; and whenever 

 this area was intruded upon by either a gull or another skua, the 

 occupants gave battle, attacking the intruder with such force as 

 to cause feathers to fly. The impact of the two birds' bodies 

 meeting in mid-air was quite perceptible to the ear. Their note.^, 

 which they constantly uttered, resembled the mewing of a cat. 

 They had two distinct types of plumage, one with light throat 

 and breast, and the other sooty all over. A pair of Great Skuas 

 had also taken up their quarters in this locality, and it was 

 interesting to observe the different manner in which the two 

 species showed their resentment of our intrusion in their haunts. 

 The Great Skuas always made a frontal attack, sweeping down 

 from a height and coming at the intruder in a horizontal 



