COMMON OR GEE AT SKUA 831 



In the skuas there is more of the hawk and not so much of tho 

 vulture. Their predatory habits, extreme violence in attack, and 

 readiness to take and destroy their feathered fellow- creatures and 

 toilers of the deep when the occasion offers, have won them a repu- 

 tation among birds similar to that of a pirate among men — the 

 lawless rover of the sea, who is without compunction, and whose 

 hand is against every man. In shape and general appearance the 

 skuas are gull-like ; they differ chiefly from the gulls in the form of 

 the beak, which is straight for two-thirds of its length, and for the 

 rest curved into a hook, as in the raptorial birds ; and in the form 

 of the tail, which is cuneiform, with the two centre feathers pro- 

 jecting beyond the others. In the gulls the tail-feathers are of 

 equal length ; while the terns, at the other end of this order of 

 birds, have sharply forked tails like the swallow. 



The great skua, or bonxie, as it is called by the Shetlanders, is 

 the largest of the family. Except during the breeding season it is 

 a solitary bird, oceanic in its habits, roaming far and wide over the 

 waters in quest of food, its visits to land being restricted to rocky 

 island coasts. Like the marine gulls, it feeds on dead fish found 

 stranded or floating on the water, and on dead animal matter of all 

 kinds, and also catches fish by pouncing on them as they swim 

 near the surface. But it prefers to watch the movements of the other 

 fishing-birds, which it follows and associates with to rob them of 

 their prey. The herring-gull and lesser black-back may be 

 frequently seen pursuing a tern or kittiwake to take from it the fish 

 it has just captured ; but these would-be robbers are not very suc- 

 cessful—the chased tern, or small gull, in most cases proves too 

 quick for them. These are like the merest mock chases and playful 

 interludes in the day's work compared with the sudden, furious 

 onslaught of the bonxie. The swiftest gull or tern cannot escape 

 from him ; he can turn as quickly as a swallow, and keep close to 

 his victim in all his doublings, until the chased bird in his terror 

 disgorges the fish he has just swallowed. The skua stays his flight 

 to pick up the falling morsel, and the chase is over. Besides robbing 

 the birds of their prey, he is also a bird-killer, making his deadly 

 attacks on the sickly or wounded, and on the young in the breeding 

 season. 



The great skua breeds in the Shetlands, but the birds have now 

 been reduced to a few pairs, chiefly owing to the persecution of 

 collectors. Every effort has been made to protect the birds in 

 their two small colonies on Unst and Foula, but it is scarcely to be 



