PARASITIC SKUA. oOo 



Variations. — Individuals apparoiitly adult have the lower 

 parts brownish-grey. These are considered by some to be 

 younger birds. 



Habits. — It is said to inhabit the arctic regions gene- 

 rally, the coasts of Norway, and the east coast of North 

 America, as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Very few- 

 individuals have been obtained in Britain. One in the 

 British Museum is mentioned ; the skin of another, procured 

 in Orkney, was sent to the Zoological Society of London, in 

 183;^; one was shot in October, 1837, near Whitburn, in 

 Durham ; and " young birds have been killed in the vicinity 

 of the Tyne, and on the coast of Durham, in the month of 

 September." I have not met Avitli it alive, or, at least, did 

 not distinguish it from the other species. Very little is 

 known of its habits, which, however, in so far as they have 

 been described, resemble those of Richardson's Jager. In 

 Mr. Thompson's Natural History of Ireland, which contains 

 a vast amount of ornithal statistics, sporting information, 

 and various other matters, but ordinarily no descriptions or 

 even specific characters of the species, nor even continuous 

 accounts of their habits, this species is stated to be " of 

 occasional occurrence in autumn on some parts of the 

 coast." 



Young. — " The young of the year are blackish-brown, 

 each feather of the back being bordered with yellowish, more 

 or less tinged with brown ; belly streaked with dull white 

 on a brown ground ; lower tail-coverts streaked with brown 

 and ochre-coloured bands ; wings and tail blackish-brown, 

 without spots ; base of the bill ochre-coloured ; tarsus, hind 

 toe with its claw, and the base of the membranes dull 

 yellowish ; the feathers of the tail rounded ; the middle pair 

 not projecting." — Temminck. 



