161 



Stercorarius parasiticus (L.), the Arctic or Richardson's Skua. 



Stercorarius parasiticus (L.), Trevor Battye (1897), p. 495. 



Lestris parasitica (L.), Kolthofp (1903), p. 71. 



Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.), Schalow (1904), p. 132. 



Lestris parasiticus (L.), le Roi (1911), p. 197. 



Stercorarius parasiticus L., Zedlitz (1911), p. 307. 

 d^, Tundra Boheman, July 9, 1921. 

 9, Tundra Bolieman, July 9, 1921. 



Of this Skua, plentiful in Spitsbergen and Scandinavia, two va- 

 rieties are known. The dark-coloured form is the common breeding 

 bird in Scandinavia, where white-bellied specimens are scarcer, 

 these being numerous on Bearisland and in Spitsbergen, where the 

 dark form is rare. 



In the forelands around Icefjord, especially in the tundras, it 

 breeds abundantly. In all places, where I landed, I met with it, 

 but it never occurs in large numbers, because each pair has its own 

 area, nesting far from each other. Only in a few occasions more 

 were seen together as e. g. near Cape Boheman on July 30. On 

 June 26 I saw a dark specimen near Cape Boheman and on 

 Sept. 2 one near Green Harbour. The latter may have been a young 

 one of the year, however. It is not known, whether dark specimens 

 in Spitsbergen are also breeding birds. 



The Skua's are a real nuisance for many birds especially for the 

 Gulls. They pursue them and oblige them to vomit their food, 

 just caught, and this they catch dexterously, while it falls down. 

 Whether they rob many eggs (which is recorded in literature and 

 observed by the Oxf. Exp.) I could not observe, but I did see that 

 young Eiders are often caught by them. In Tundra Boheman 

 they chased principally young King-Eiders. That these Skua's can 

 also catch live, fying birds is not recorded, as far as I know. In 

 the evening of Aug. 26 we saw two Skua's, chasing Purple Sand- 

 pipers in Ekman Bay. One Sandpiper fled through our legs into 

 our tent and saved its life in this way. Another specimen, chased 

 above the sea, suddenly received a wing-stroke from one of the 

 Skua's, fell into the sea, was immediately seized by the Skua's bill 

 and devoured by the Skua's on the beach. 



To my regret I did not find nests of the Skua in Tundra Bohe- 

 man, and so I could not watch their peculiar behaviour near the 

 nest. They like to overlook the country, sitting on a small knoll 



11 



