118 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE GEEAT SKUA. 



(Stercorariiis ca tarrhactes.) * 



Plate 37, Figs. 3, 4. 



The only locality in the British Islands where the Great Skua 

 is known to breed is in the Shetlands, and even there incessant 

 persecution has driven it from all its old stations, with the 

 exception of one on Unst and a second on the neighbouring" 

 island of Foula. It is an oceanic bird, and is only known to breed 

 in Iceland, the Faroes, and on the Shetlands, though it probably 

 also breeds in Hudson Strait in North America. 



It makes a somewhat slight nest, treading a hollow in the moss 

 nearly a foot in diameter, and lining it with bits of moss, a little 

 dead grass, and a feather or two. 



The usual number of eggs is two, but in some instances it is 

 said that one only is found. The eggs vary in length from 3'0 to 

 2" 7 inches, and in breadth from 2'0 to 1'9 inch. They vary in 

 ground-colour from pale huffish- brown to dark huffish -brown ; 

 the overlying spots are dark brown, and the underlying ones are 

 greyish-brown, generally most thickly distributed round the large 

 end, where they are sometimes confluent, and usually varying 

 from the size of a pea downwards, and never very conspicuous. 

 They bear a close resemblance to brown varieties of the eggs of 

 the Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, but the spots always 

 appear duller, in consequence of the less difference in colour 

 between the markings and the ground-colour. 



FAMILY CHARADBIIDM, 



OB PLOVEBS. 



As might be expected in a family of birds so strictly migratory, 

 as a rule, as the Plovers, only seventeen of the British species 

 visit us on passage to and from their northern breeding-grounds, 

 while as many as twenty-three are accidental visitors only. The 

 species which nest are sixteen in number. 



* Megalestris catarrhactes— Saunders, Cat. B, Brit. Mus., XXV., p. 315. 



