CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. • 2g 



Baffin bay but rare in the Polar sea. {At'ct. Ma/i.) Not common 

 in Hudson bay or strait. Found there in the winter, but rarely 

 seen in the summer. Very abundant along the north Greenland 

 coast, less so along the western side of Baffin bay. Seen in Lan- 

 caster sound. {A. P. Lotv.) Ellsemere island. Commonest in 

 Kane basin. {E. Bay.) Common on the coast of Labrador off 

 Resolution island, Grinnell bay and Frobisher strait, but did 

 not see any in Cumberland gulf ; they are abundant off Exeter 

 sound and to the northward on the west coast of Baffin bay. 

 {Kumeli?i.) Godbout, River St. Lawrence, Quebec. {Dioiine.) A 

 dovekie was shot Nov. i8th, 1901, by H. Macdonald, a fisherman, 

 two miles out in the lake from Toronto, Ont. I was present when 

 he opened the stomach, which was empty except for a few sm.all 

 fish bones. It was a female and evidently a young bird. (/. H. 

 Ames.) 



Breeding Notes.— I have a number of the eggs of this bird from 

 Iceland. Dr. Shufeldt has stated in his "Comparative Orders of 

 North American Birds" that this bird lays two eggs, but my col- 

 lector in Iceland has never found more than one &g^ to a clutch, 

 and has been collecting for fifteen years. Most British ornitho- 

 logical writers state this bird lays only one egg. It deposits its 

 single pale greenish-blue ^^^ in crevices of the sea-cliffs. Breeds 

 in Greenland on Smith sound. {Kai?ie.) 



Order. LONGtIPENNEB. Long-wIx\ged Swimmers. 



Family IV. STERCORARIID^. Skuas and Jaegers. 



XVIII. MEGALESTRIS Bonaparte. 1856. 



35. The Common Skua. ^ 



Megalestris skua (Brunn.) Ridgw. 1880. 



Seen twice on the south coast of Greenland by Holboell. {Arct. 

 Man.) One seen sitting in the water in the straits of Belle Isle- 

 June 22nd, 1882. (Packard.) Not very common in winter and 

 spring around Nova Scotia. {Doiu?is.) Seen off the coast of New 

 Brunswick. {Adams.) Occasional in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 {Dio?me.) Great Slave lake, very rare. {Ross.) Appears to be 

 of frequent occurrence on " The George's," Newfoundland, and on 



