POMATORHINE SKUA 439 



Mr. R. J. Balston has seen the Great Skua off the coast 

 of Kent and in the estuary of the Thames. 



In 1901 Mr. W. E. Butterfield, in writing to the 

 Zoologist, p. 521, states that " a female Great Skua was 

 shot on 'October 4 near the Post-office at Dungeness, by 

 Mr. G. Bates, and forwarded to me in the flesh." This 

 specimen is now in the Museum at Hastings. 



POMATOEHINE SKUA. 



Stercorarius j^omatorhinus (Temminck). 

 Man. (VOmlth., p. 514 (1815). 



In the last edition of Yarrell's British Birds it is stated 

 that " the first notice of this species as a British bird 

 appears to be in the sale catalogue of Mr. Bullock's col- 

 lection, April, 1819, where at p. 32, lot 62, a second 

 example of this same species, killed at Dover," is men- 

 tioned. 



Although the Eev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in 1844, 

 states that this species is "not uncommon in Eomney 

 Marsh," there are no records of its occurrence in that 

 locality. There is a Kentish specimen in the Maidstone 

 Museum, presented by Mr. G. Simmons, which may be 

 out of the Marsh. He had several birds from that locality. 



In 1868 Mr. F. D. Power, in his notes from Eain- 

 ham, says: "Two were shot in this district during Sep- 

 tember, one in the immediate neighbourhood at the 

 beginning of the month, and the other at Stangate 

 Creek on the 28th. This last was a very nice specimen 

 of the Pomerine Skua, and, according to Yarrell, in the 



