168 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



POMATORHINE SKUA. — Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temm). 



A " TOLERABLY common autumnal visitor to the 



South Coast of Devon, especially about Torbay," 



writes Mr. Cecil Smith, and this definition is about 



the best that could be given, for the species occurs 



in some years in considerable numbers, having 



previously migrated from the Arctic circle down 



the North Sea, and thus found its way into the 



English ChanneL " This bird" says the Rev. M. 



A. Mathew in 1858, "is well known to the sailors 



at Torquay, who call it and Richardson's bird 



" Irish Lords," why I could not discover." He 



adds that it chiefly occurs in October, that he and a 



friend shot five at Torquay, and that he examined 



others killed about the same time (Zool. 1859. p. 



6331). The Rev. M. S. C. Rickards shot an 



immature bird on the beach at Exmouth in 1868, 



as early as the 30th of September, a heavy gale 



blowing from the S.E. (Zool. 1869. p. 1518). In 



1869, Baron A. von Hiigel reported two immature 



birds shot in Torbay on the 12th of October. In 



1871, two nearly adult and two immature 



birds were shot in Torbay in the same months, as 



recorded by the late Mr. J. H. Gurney. In 1879 



the year of the memorable visitation of this Skua 



to the East Coast of England, the Rev. M. A. 



Mathew received two adults shot at In stow, October 



21st, and " probably part of the immense flight 



which had visited the Coast of Norfolk a few days 



earlier " Mr. Gatcombe reported that large 



