SKUAS 305 



GREAT SKUA. Lestris catarractes (Linnaeus), PI. 35, 

 figs. 9, 9a. Length, 22 in. ; bill, 2-5 in. ; wing, 15-5 

 in. ; tarsus, 275 in. 



The name of this bird is said to be derived 

 from its cry shui-shui (" Fauna of Sutherland," p. 

 235). Sixty years ago there were three separate 

 breeding stations in the Shetlands : one is now 

 completely deserted, and in the other two (Unst 

 and Foula) the birds which resort there to nest are 

 now being as much as possible protected. 



But for the protection afiforded in the nesting- 

 season by Mr. Thomas Edmonston in Unst, and the 

 difficulty of reaching the distant island of Foula by 

 bird collectors, the species would have been extinct 

 as a British bird years ago. See Mr. R. M. Barring- 

 ton's report on the Great Skua in Foula, as observed 

 in June 1890 [Zool., 1890, pp. 297, 354, 391, 434), 

 and an article by Prof. Newton {Field, March 21, 

 1891). See also a letter from Mr. Thomas Edmon- 

 ston on the protection of this bird in Unst in The 

 Times, August 1, 1891, reprinted in Messrs. Evans 

 and Buckley's "P^auna of Shetland," 1899, in which 

 last-mentioned work will be found the most com- 

 plete account yet published on the status of the 

 Great Skua as a British species, with a full-page 

 illustration of a nest containing one e^^ and a 

 nestling. 



The Great Skua is supposed to have nested 



formerly in Orkney, but the late Mr. Reid of Wick^ 



writing to me in November 1876, stated that he 



u 



