392 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



in Hook's works, however, the sky is but a dead 

 blank containing neither light nor true cloud-forms; 

 and the i3icture is of no more value as a contribution 

 to natural history than are those of the earlier 

 academicians who painted eagles' nests containing 

 beautifully-dressed babies. The artist, not having 

 himself witnessed the incident, and having failed to 

 interpret aright Bewick's description (which is any- 

 thing but clear), represents the nest of the Bonxie 

 as being in a precipitous rock facing the sea, 

 whereas it should have been placed on the flat 

 moorland. 



The Skua is by far the most courageous of our 

 swimming birds ; and he seems to prefer a life of 

 plunder to Ashing on his own account, although an 

 onlooker would suppose a life of honest industry to 

 be more easily followed and less vexatious to the 

 bird than that of a freebooter. His mode of plunder- 

 ing is to watch the Gulls and Terns while fishing, 

 and to pounce upon any one of them he may have 

 observed catching a fish. When thus attacked, the 

 Gulls, and more particularly the Terns, scream aloud 

 and try to escape without having to disgorge the 

 coveted booty. Such encounters are sometimes 

 highly exciting, as was one we witnessed in 

 December, 1872. A Herring Gull, on being attacked, 

 endeavoured to escape by rising in the air so as to 

 get above his antagonist; but the pirate bird kept 

 soaring uppermost, thus making the escape of the 

 Gull impossible. The contest was a keen one. The 

 Skua faced the Gull, evidently intent on bullying 

 him out of his repast. By a vigorous effort that 

 seemed to bring all his energy into full play, the 

 Skua poised himself in a somewhat perpendicular 

 position, his head, Avhich was tremulous with excite- 

 ment, pointing slightly forward and his fan-like 

 tail pointing directly downward. Thus poised he 

 screamed, and beat violently with his feet, like a 

 Falcon. The Gull, after showing signs of exhaustion, 

 sank below his antagonist, dropped the fish, and 



