STERCORARIID^.. 



687 



THE GREAT SKUA. 



Megalestris catarrhactes (Linnasus). 



This is the largest European representative of the group of 

 Parasitic Gulls, the members of which obtain their food chiefly. .by 

 robbing the smaller sea fowl. In the British Islands the only 

 breeding-places of the Great Skua or 'Bonxie' are in the Shetlands, 

 where a well-known colony on Unst, and another on Foula may 

 be mentioned, at both of which the bird is protected. It seldom 

 visits the Orkneys or the Outer Hebrides, and is decidedly scarce 

 along the west side of Scotland, though occasionally met with 

 on the east during the colder months ; and the same may be said 

 of Wales and England, down to and throughout the Channel ; but 

 it seems to be rarer than is really the case, because it frequents 

 the fishing-grounds far out at sea, where the Gulls, which it robs, 

 are plentiful. Exceptionally, after severe weather, it has been met 

 with inland. It has rarely been detained in Ireland. 



The Great Skua breeds in the Faeroe Islands, though diminished 

 in numbers by the ' neb-toll ' to which rapacious birds are subject ; 



