694 LONG-TAILED SKUA. 



of lat. 68". It breeds in Spitsbergen, and also in Novaya Zemlya 

 where Admiral Markham obtained a nestling, now in the British 

 Museum. Eastward, this species can be traced across the tundras 

 of Siberia to Bering Sea, and it is widely distributed over the Arctic 

 regions of America. Col. Feilden met with no other Skua in Smith 

 Sound at 82° 50' N. ; it breeds also in many parts of Greenland, and 

 visits Jan Mayen. On migration it ranges southward as far as the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, and down to about lat 40° N. on the 

 east of America, while on the Pacific side it has reached lat. 20° N. 



The eggs — usually 2 in number — are laid on the ground in some 

 slight hollow, and are smaller, greener, and often more scrolled than 

 those of the Arctic Skua, which they otherwise resemble : measure- 

 ments 2 by 1*5 in. The birds are very bold when their nest is 

 approached, and utter a loud shrieking note ; the flight is remarkably 

 swift and elegant. In summer, crowberries are largely consumed by 

 the young ; at other times beetles, crustaceans, worms, small birds, 

 fish robbed from other Gulls or Terns, and lemmings, form the diet 

 of this species, with a preference for the last kind of fare. 



The adult has the forehead, lores, crown and nape brownish- 

 black ; lower cheeks and neck bufifish-yellow ; mantle and central 

 tail-feathers of a greyer brown than in the Arctic Skua ; wings and 

 the shorter tail-feathers dark brown ; breast chiefly white ; flanks 

 and belly greyish-brown ; bill dark horn-colour ; legs olive-grey ; feet 

 black. Length 23 in., including the long tail-feathers, which some- 

 times project as much as 8"5 in. in the male and 7 in the female ; 

 wing 1 1 '9 in. Immature birds are barred with greyish-brown and 

 white on both upper and under parts — especially on the breast, 

 flanks, and tail-coverts. The young of the year are subject to a 

 little variation in tint, especially on the lower surface, but are always 

 greyer and less rufous than examples of the Arctic Skua. The 

 readiest distinction at any age is, however, to be found in the shafts 

 of the primaries ; all of these being white in the Arctic Skua, 

 whereas in the Long-tailed Skua the two outer ones only on each side 

 are tvhite, the rest being dusky : a fact which was distinctly indicated 

 by Linnaeus in his description. 



In the young of this and of the two preceding species the inter- 

 digital webs are parti-coloured, as shown in the vignette of the 

 Pomatorhine Skua (p. 690). It was this peculiarity which led 

 Banks to confer the mere name crepidatns (sandalled) upon the 

 Arctic Skua, though Gmelin was the first to give a proper description 

 of that species. 



