THE BIRDS OF HELIC40LAXD 567 



seasons when the weather, at the bot^inniiig of suinincr, was ahiiost 

 invariably tine and warm. Old birds, both hi the light as well 

 as in the uniformly dark-coloured plumage, were at that time of 

 quite conmiou and often frequent occurrence in the immediate 

 vicinity of the island. For more than thirty years, however, the 

 last of the spring and the first of the summer months have been 

 almost without exception raw and cold ; and consequently this 

 species, which never used to make its appearance before the 

 weather became warm, has only been seen on rare and solitary 

 occasions. The number of young birds during the autumn months 

 has likewise undergone considerable diminution. 



This species is widely and very numerously distributed. Its 

 nesting stations extend from the Arctic coasts and islands of the 

 Oil I and New World, southwards as far as the ShetUmd Islands 

 and Hebrides. 



374. — Buffon's Skua [Kleine EaubmOwe]. 

 LESTRIS BUFFONI, Boie.' 



Heligolandish : Lutj-Skeetenjoager = iif(/(; Skua. 



Lestris crepidata. Naumann, x. 534. 



Buffon's Skua. Dre.sser, viii. 481. 



Stercoraire 2M'rasite. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 796, iv. 501. 



I have only twice obtained old birds of this species ; the first 

 example was shot on the 31st of July 1853 by Von Sodenstern, a 

 Hessian lieutenant, who most kindly presented me with it for my 

 collection. It is a specimen of a fine male, in which the sides of 

 the neck are of a rich straw-yellow colour, and iii the tail the central 

 pair of feathers extends 8'7 ins. (22 cm.) beyond the adjacent pair. 

 The second example, an old female, also shot in the summer season 

 a few years ago, has unfortunately lost the two central feathers of 

 the tail, but is faultless in all the rest of the plumage. Solitary 

 young birds of the year are met with almost every autumn. 



This small species is a summer resident on the Arctic coasts 

 and islands of the Old and New World ; it is known to have bred 

 in exceptional cases south of 70' N. lat. Yon Middcndorfi' found 

 it nesting in the Taimyr Peninsula in 74i° N. lat. Ca{)tain 

 Feilden met with it in Smith's Sound, 78° N. lat., and Parry in 

 82" N. lat. 



* Stercoraritis parasiticus (Linn.). 



