The Twist-tailed Skua 163 



THE TWIST-TAILED OR POMATORHINE 

 SKUA (STERCORARIUS POMATORHINUS) 



THIS bird belongs to the species of robber gulls. 

 Its home is in the Arctic Seas from whence it 

 strays southwards in winter, and has been seen 

 occasionally on our coasts. Its habits, however, vary 

 but little from those of the other species. The peculiar 

 mal-formation — so to speak — of its tail feathers is its 

 distinguishing mark. In this bird you have a series 

 of these feathers standing perpendicularly, not as in 

 other birds, horizontally. Upper plumage dark brown ; 

 feathers of the nape long, tapering and glossy ; upper 

 plumage and sides of face white ; brown spots on the 

 breast, and on the flanks ; ends of the tail-feathers and 

 quills white, save at the very tip; two central tail- 

 feathers projecting beyond the others ; length twenty- 

 one inches. Upper plumage of young birds dusky-brown 

 mottled with dark yellow. Eggs a peculiar green; 

 spotted with dark patches. 



During November a very fine specimen was shot by a 

 native fisherman on the Slakes in the company of a bunch 

 of widgeon. It was the first of its kind ever seen by me 

 on Holy Island and therefore forms an important item 

 in my catalogue of the sea-fowl of the Northumbrian 

 coast. As I do not possess a taxidermised collection I 

 sent this bird to a wild-fowling friend at York, and it 

 certainly augments the number already enumerated 

 in my previous notes on the liberal avi-fauna found in 

 this famous haunt of the migratory birds. This species 

 of robber gull is most voracious in preying upon other 

 birds. It has been known to attack the ordinary gull 

 and some of the larger species of duck, and it is recorded 

 that in captivity one of these birds devoured a quarter 

 of a hundred sparrows at a meal. 



