3o6 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



had only known two instances of the Great Skua 

 having been met with in Orkney during the previous 

 forty years, namely, one shot near Kirkwall, and an- 

 other near Stromness. Messrs. Buckley and Harvie- 

 Brown in their " Fauna of the Orkney Islands," 1891, 

 mention a few additional instances of its occurrence 

 there, the latest having been seen at Stromness in 

 November 1887. 



Towards the approach of winter this species 

 migrates southward from its breeding haunts in 

 Iceland, the Faroes, and Shetland, and it is at this 

 season of the year that it is most frequently met 

 with on our coasts. In Ireland it is a very rare 

 visitor in autumn. 



RICHARDSON'S or ARCTIC SKUA. Lestris crepidatus 

 (Gmelin). PI. 35, figs. 6, 7. Length, 20 in. ; biU, 

 1*5 in.; wing, 13 in.; tarsus, 1'25 in. 



Breeds in Sutherland and Caithness, and in all 

 three groups of the Scottish Isles. Migrates to 

 the more southern British coasts after the breed- 

 ing season. For some interesting remarks on this 

 species by Mr. L. Edmonston see Edinb. Phil. 

 Journ., vol. vii. (1822), and Buckley and Evans' 

 "Fauna of the Shetland Islands," 1899, pp. 196- 

 198. These authors remark: — "The form of the 

 Arctic Skua with white underparts is quite as com- 

 mon in Shetland as the sooty race, if not more so ; 

 and T. Edmonston, jun., who had every facility 

 for observing the birds, tells us that even the 

 nestlings differ greatly in their tints. The two 



