1896.] Warren.— 77/^ Skuas of Killala Bay. 261 



tailed, or white-breasted ones were seen ; some of the skuas 

 appeared tired with their long flight against the wind, and 

 would occasionally light on the water, resting for a few minutes, 

 and then rise and follow their companions. Strange to say, 

 though there were plenty of gulls about the sands on both days 

 while the skuas were passing, j^et we never saw any attempt 

 to chase the gulls, though quite close to them. 



The next occasion on which I had the pleasure of seeing 

 skuas on migration was on the iSth September, 1869 — a fine 

 bright calm day, as I was in one of my fields looking on at 

 some reapers at work, and chancing to look upwards, my 

 attention was drawn to a flock of fifteen birds passing at an 

 immense height on their usual course to the south-west, and 

 if the daj^ had not been so clear I could not have recognised 

 them as skuas, for I was only just able to make out their dark 

 long tails against the clear blue sky. Again on the 3rd of 

 October, 1874, I was fortunate in witnessing a small flight of 

 skuas migrating in the usual direction. The weather had been 

 ver}^ stormy, with heavy showers for some days before : wind 

 north-west on this day, when about ten o'clock I observed a 

 flock of twenty birds flying up the river from the sea ; a short 

 time afterwards four more passed ; then a little flock of three, 

 w^hich v/ere followed by four, and in about a quarter of an 

 hour, a solitarj^ bird (which I think was a Pomatorhine) 

 brought up the rear, and as far as I saw ended the flight for 

 the daj^ 



I have frequently observed, and shot solitary birds of this 

 species during the migrator}^ months of September and October, 

 but their spring visits are very rare. 



In May, 1877, a party of six birds accom^panied a large flight 

 of Common and Arctic Terns visiting the bay and estuar}- : 

 three of the skuas were in light-coloured plumage, and three 

 in the very dark, or black stage, and I imagined at the time, 

 from seeing a light and a dark-coloured bird keeping company, 

 that these colours marked the male and female, and in order 

 to ascertain if my surmise was correct, I shot three birds, a 

 light-coloured one, a bird in an intermediate stage of plumage, 

 and a dark, or nearly black one, all three having long tails, 

 showing that they w^ere adults. However, much to my sur- 

 prise, on skinning and dissecting them, they all three turned 



A4 



