SKUA 869 



every bird almost, from an Eagle downwards, is repelled by buffets 

 or something worse. 



The largest European species is the Stercoraiius catarrJiades of 

 ornithologists — the " Skooi " or " Bonxie " of the Shetlanders, a 

 bird in size equalling a Herring-GuLL, Larus argentat'us. The sexes 

 do not differ in colour, which is of a dark brown, somewhat 

 lighter beneath ; but the primaries have at the base a patch of 

 white, visible even when the wings are closed, and forming, when 

 they are spread, a conspicuous band. The bill and feet are black. 

 This is a species of comparatively limited range, breeding only in 

 some two or three localities in the Shetlands, about as many in the 

 Faeroes,^ and hardly more in Iceland. Out of the breeding-season 

 it shews itself in most parts of the North Atlantic, but never seems 

 to stray further south than Gibraltar or Morocco, and it is there- 

 fore a matter of much interest to find the Southern Ocean inhabited 

 by a bird — the "Port Egmont Hen" of Cook's Voyages — which so 

 closely resembles the Skua as to have been for a long while 

 regarded as si:)ecifically identical with it, but is now usually recog- 

 nized as distinct under the name of ^S*. antarcticus. This bird, 

 characterized by its stout, deep bill and want of rufous tint on its 

 lower plumage, has an extensive range, from the Falkland Islands 

 past Kerguelen Land to Australian waters and those of New 

 Zealand, while occasionally visiting the coast of Madagascar and 

 the Cape of Good Hope as well perhaps as Ceylon. Another allied 

 species hitherto only met with near the south-polar ice is recognized 

 by Mr. Saunders {Gat B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 321, pi. i.). On the 

 western coast of South America, making its way into the Straits of 

 Magellan, and passing along the coast so far as Kio Janeiro, is found 

 *S'. chilensis, distinguished among other characters by the cinnamon 

 tint of its lower plumage. All these are now placed by Mr. Saunders 

 {torn. cit. p. 313) in a distinct genus — Megalestris. 



Three other smaller species of Stercorarius are known, and 

 each is more widely distributed than those just mentioned, but 

 the home of all is in the more northern parts of the earth, 

 though in winter two of them go very far south, and, crossing the 

 equator, shew themselves on the seas that wash the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Australia, New Zealand and Peru. The first of them is 

 S. jyotnatorhmus (often and originally mis-spelt pomarinus), about the 



^ It has long been subjected to persecution in these islands, a reward being 

 paid for its head, and but very few pairs now exist there. On the other hand, 

 in the Shetlands a fine was exacted for its death, as it was believed to protect 

 the sheep against Eagles. Yet for all this it would long ago have been extir- 

 pated there, and have ceased to be a British bird in all but name, but for the 

 special protection afforded it by several members of two families (Edmondston of 

 Unst and Scott of Melby), whose exertions on its behalf deserve the praise of all 

 ornithologists, and were recognized in 1891 by the award to their representatives 

 of the silver medal of the Zoological Society of London. 



