304 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
a branch, a broad leaf-stalk, or a coral reef. The nesting habits of 
Naenia are unknown, but it frequents rocky, cavernous shores. 
Rhynchops has a peculiarly low flight, rapid and gliding, with 
many a turn and twist, which has gained it the name of Skimmer. 
The food, often sought towards evening, appears to consist of small 
fish and crustaceans ; it is procured by keeping the bill wide open, 
with the long mandible ploughing through the water or mud, and 
leaving a distinct furrow in its track. The cry is a low harsh 
scream or shrill twittering note. A hollow in some sandy river- 
bank or island serves to contain the three or four grey, green, 
buff, or white eggs, with blotches and streaks of purplish-grey 
and dark brown. The female is said to sit only at night or in 
stormy weather, and the young to be unable to fly for several 
weeks,’ but the remaining habits resemble those of Terns. 
The sexes in the Laridae are invariably similar, the plumage 
being grey and white, or more rarely blackish or brown, details 
of which will be found below. The young are duller, being 
mottled with brown or black in immature Gulls. The frequent 
black or brown heads, often lacking at certain ages or times of year, 
the seasonal changes generally, the neck-collar of Yema sabinii and 
Lhodostethia, and the rosy tint on the breast in the latter species, 
Larus franklini, and Sterna dougalli may be noticed in passing. 
The members of the Family range in size from the Glaucous 
to the Little Gull; the largest Tern being the Caspian, and the 
smallest, as 1ts name indicates, the Least Tern. 
Sub-fam. 1. Stercorariinae——Of this widely spread but curi- 
ously distributed group, Megalestris catarrhactes, the Great Skua or 
Bonxie, a fine rufous-brown species, with a white wing-patch which 
is very conspicuous in flight, breeds in Shetland, the Fiiroes, Iceland, 
and possibly north of Hudson Strait, occurring in South Greenland 
and Norway, and reaching New England and Gibraltar in winter. 
It nests in colonies, though each pair occupies a distinct area, which 
the parents defend with exceptional boldness,swooping down swiftly 
with a heavy rush, and dropping the feet when at close quarters, 
as if to strike an intruder. Unlike their smaller kin, which will 
attack a man from, any side and hit him with their wings, these 
birds commonly aim directly at the face, and their onslaught, if not 
averted, is really dangerous, while they only just clear the head 
when threatened with a stick. The two eggs, deposited in a depres- 
1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer. ii. 1884, p. 194. 
