BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 677 



bb. Under parts pale buffy brown; neck conspiruoiisly streaked with yellow; white 

 area at base of primaries larger. (South Victoria Laud, Weddell Sea, and 

 adjacent part of Antarctic Ocean.) 



Megalestris maccormicki (extralimital).<» 



MEGALESTRIS SKUA (Brunnich). 



SKUA. 



Adults (sexes alike).'' — General color dull grayish brown, the inter- 

 scapulars, scapulars, and wing-coverts with median streaks of pale 

 cinnamon, the feathers of head and neck with similar but narrower 

 streaks; under parts somewhat paler than upper parts, usually 

 more or less suffused with cinnamon, the sides and flanks indistinctly 

 striped or broadly streaked with the same; remiges, primary coverts, 

 and alula dark grayish brown or dusky, the primaries white basally, 

 forming a distinct patch, the concealed basal portion of secondaries 

 also white; tail uniform dusky; bill dusky horn color or dull blackish; 

 iris dark brown; legs and feet dull blackish. 



Young. — Head, neck, and under parts plain grayish brown, the 

 last tinged with cinnamon or dull rusty; upper parts darker grayish 

 brown, paler on back and lesser wing-coverts, where indistinctly 

 spotted with dull rusty or cinnamon; otherwise essentially like adults, 

 but bill, legs, and feet more brownish. 



Downy young. — Plain buffy or cinnamomeous gra}', darker (some- 

 times more cinnamomeous) on upper parts. 



Adult male. — Wing, 400; tail, 52; culmen, 20.5; tarsus, 61-69.8 

 (65.2); middle toe, 54.5-63.5 (59.3).'^ 



Adult female. — Wing, 406.5; tail, 53.5; culmen, 22.5; tarsus, 69.5; 

 middle toe, 64.5.'' 



Breeding in Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Shetland Islands; during 

 migration occurring off coasts of Greenland (south side of Olrik 

 Bay; off Disko Island; Ivigtut), Lady Franklin Island north of 

 Hudson Strait, eastern portion of Hudson Strait, Mackenzie (Mac- 

 kenzie River), Labrador (Strait of Belle Isle, June 22, 1852), New- 

 foundland (Grand Banks), Massachusetts (Georges Bank; Nan- 

 tucket Sound, 2 specimens, Oct. 17, 1883; Nantucket Shoals, Oct. 

 11, 1883; off Cape Cod, Sept. 10, 1884; Gloucester, July 18, 1878; 



O' Stercorarius maccormicki Saunders, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, no. xiii, Dec. 30, 1893, 

 p. xii; Ibis, 1894, 291 (Possession Island, Victoria Land; coll. Brit. Mus.). — Megales- 

 tris rnaccormichi Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv, 1896, 321, pi. 1. — Catharacta 

 maccormicki maccormicki Mathews, Birds Australia, ii, pt. 5, Jan. 31, 1913, 496 (South 

 Victoria Land, breeding). 



^ There seems to be no seasonal differences of plumage in the Skuas other than those 

 dependent on relative freshness or wearing of the feathers. 



c Three specimens. 



^ One specimen, from Faroe Islands. A specimen of undetermined sex from the 

 - Faroes measure as follows: Wing, 410; tail, 52; culmen, 20.5; tarsus, 68.5; middle toe, 

 62.5. 



