48 



On our coastal shores and harbours this Httle bird should be looked 

 for onl}^ in the winter. It flies with a very rapid wing motion. 



Order — Longipennes. The Long-winged Swimmers. 



General Description. The Long-winged swimmers are sea birds, with four toes and 

 two webs, and with the wings longer than the tail if the excessively lengthened middle tail 

 feather of some Jaegers and the equally elongated outer swallow tails of some Terns are 

 disregarded. 



Distinctions. Can be recognized as an Order by their long wings and bill characters 

 (Figures 3, 4, 5, p. 18) and are separated from the Tube-nosed Swimmers by the position 

 of the nostrils which are in the sides of the bill and not in a tube on top (See Figure 11, p. 19, 

 for comparison). 



Field Marks. No field marks can be given covering the order except length of wing 

 and mode of flight. 



Nesting. Usually breed on the ground or on cliff ledges, but there is little uniformity 

 in their nesting habits. 



Distribution. Some species are more or less common over all the waterways of Canada. 



The long-winged Swimmers are wonderful fliers, being both tireless 

 and agile on the wing. In habit they are fishers, scavengers, or pirates. 

 There are only two families of the order in Canada; the Jaegers and the 

 Gulls, the latter including the closely allied Terns or "Sea Swallows". 



Economic Status. Being sea birds, the damage they do is slight and 

 some of them are actively beneficial to man. 



FAMILY — STERCORARIID^. JAEGERS AND SKUAS. 



General Description. The Jaegers are predaceous sea birds. In colour they are dark 

 brown and white. The family shows a peculiar dichromatism and all Canadian species 

 occm* in two coloiu* phases, an almost evenly dark brown one and a dark or slaty brown 

 with white or hght head, neck, and underparts and an almost black cap. 



Distinctions. The bills of the Jaegers (see Figure 3, p. 18) are characteristic, 

 there being a distinct nail at the tip forming a well-marked hook, plainly separable from 

 the remaining cere at the base of the bill. This character separates them easily from the 

 Gulls, whereas the presence of nostrils and two instead of three toe webs (Figure 6, p. 19 

 for comparison), distinguishes them from the Cormorants which have bills similar in out- 

 line. The fact that the nostrils are not in tubes (Figure 11, p. 19) differentiates them from 

 the Petrels which they otherwise resemble. 



Field Marks. Jaegers are dark in colour above, have a quite conspicuous light band 

 across the underside of the wing near the tip, and are hawk-Uke in flight. Two of the 

 three species, in the adult state, show elongated tail feathers that are good recognition 

 marks. 



Nesting. On ground, in grass. 



The occurrence of the two colour phases as well as every possible 

 intermediate plumage, makes the identification of some of the Jaegers a 

 difficult matter. Jaegers are pirates of the air; they pursue successful 

 fishing birds and force them to disgorge the fish they have swallowed; 

 and eggs and young birds in the nest are never safe from them. 



Three Jaegars accur in eastern Canada and one Skua — the latter 

 too rare and accidental, except off the outer Newfoundland coast, for 

 further mention. 



Economic Status. The Jaegers are not very numerous and except in 

 far away, wild localities where numbers give them local importance, they 

 are of little economic influence. 



36. Pomarine Jaeger, bo'sn. (boatswain), fr. — le labbe pomarin. Stercorarius 

 pomarimis. L, 22. (Tail 9-25, projections of centre feathers beyond outer ones 4-25.) 



