616 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
According to Yarrell, the eggs are are of a stone- 
colour, spotted with ash-grey and two shades of 
reddish brown. 
Ricuarpson’s Sxua, Lestris Richardsonii. All the 
Skuas seem to make themselves particularly dis- 
agreeable to the rest of the family to which they 
belong, for the most part obtaining their food by 
persecuting the other Gulls and Terns till they are 
obliged to disgorge any prey they may have recently 
taken, which the Skua immediately picks up and 
appropriates. When watching the flocks of Kitti- 
wakes fishing off Exmouth I have occasionally seen 
this system of persecution carried out: a Pomarine 
Skua will pick out a Kittiwake that has been in- 
dulging rather freely in sprats, and follow him up: 
no dodging of the Kittiwake amongst the crowd of 
his companions will do; the Skua sticks to him till 
eventually he has to disgorge his sprats, which the 
Skua immediately swallows. As this is the general 
character of the Skuas, the term “ Lestris,” from the 
Greek word Angrens, ‘a robber,” especially “a sea 
robber,” is apphed to these birds with more pro- 
priety than is usual in ornithological classics. 
Of the four British Skuas I can only bring two 
actually into Somersetshire, although both of the 
others have been taken in the neighbouring counties 
of Devon and Dorset, and Yarrell mentions one of 
them, the Common Skua, as having been taken on 
the Severn, but does not say in what part. The 
