282 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Family STERCORARIID^. Genus Stercorarius. 



BUFFO N'S SKUA. 



Stercorarius buffoni {Boie). 



(British : Rather rare nomadic autumn and spring migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, early in July. 



Breeding area : Northern Nearctic and Palsearctic 

 regions. Buffon's Skua breeds on the tundras and barren 

 grounds above the limits of forest growth in both 

 hemispheres, and in a similar climate on the treeless 

 moors of the Dovre-fjeld, as far south as lat. 62 J°. It 

 breeds in Lapland, probably Spitzbergen, on Nova 

 Zembla, and thence across the tundras of Europe and 

 Asia eastwards to Bering Strait. In the New World 

 it breeds on the barren grounds of the Arctic regions of 

 America, from Alaska to Greenland. 



Breeding habits : Buffon's Skua reaches its Arctic 

 breeding grounds during the first half of June. At all 

 seasons this Skua is more or less gregarious : it breeds 

 in colonies which are, however, scattered, and cover a 

 wide area of ground. Of the pairing habits of this bird 

 nothing appears to have been observed or recorded. 

 The breeding haunts of this Skua are the most barren 

 portions of the tundras at no great distance from the 

 Arctic Ocean, where the grass, moss, and lichens that 

 clothe the ground grow in scattered patches with strips 

 of bare sand or clay between them. The nest is merely 

 a shallow hollow amongst the moss or grass, scantily 

 lined with dead leaves of the dwarf birch or the cran- 

 berry, and a little dry grass or moss. The birds are 

 very bold and pugnacious at their breeding grounds, 

 resenting any intrusion, and according to MacFarlane 

 the female occasionally shams lameness when disturbed 

 from her eggs. 



