LARIDM. 83 



frequently accompanying their boats to the fishing-ground, which they consider a hicky omen, 

 and in return for its attendance they give it the refuse of the fish which are caught." 



Yarrell also says the female lays two and sometimes three eggs, which are olive- 

 brown, blotched with darker brown ; the length two inches nine lines, and two inches 

 in breadth. Though this Skua is essentially a "robber," Mr. Howard Saunders says it also 

 feeds upon flesh, and especially upon the Kittiwake Gull. 



As this bird has been shot in both Cornwall and Devonshire, it might be met with in 

 the English Channel. It is thus described by Yarrell ('British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 48J:) : — 

 "In this species the bill and its cere are black; irides dark brown; the whole of the 

 head and neck dark umber-brown, slightly varied by streaks of reddish-brown ; back, 

 wings, and tail dark brown ; scapulars and tertials margined with pale reddish-brown ; 

 wing-primaries blackish-brown, rusty brownish-white at the base ; the two middle tail- 

 feathers a little longer, and rather darker in colour than the others ; chin, throat, neck 

 in front, breast, and all the under surface of the body uniform clove-brown ; legs, toes, 

 and their membranes black ; the tarsi scutellated in front, reticulated behind ; the inner 

 claw the strongest and the most curved. The whole length, twenty-four to twenty-five 

 inches ; the wing from the anterior bend, sixteen inches. The female is rather smaller 

 than the male, biit otherwise the sexes do not differ much in appearance ; nor does this 

 species assume by age the lighter colours peculiar to the other species of this genus." 



PoMATOBHiNE Skua, Stercorarius pornatorhimis. — This Skua is perhaps better known as tbe 

 Pomarine Skua, and Seebohm, in describing it, says that whatever pomarinus may mean, they 

 are by far the most marine of these very marine birds. In Great Britain itself it is rare, 

 though large flocks may every season be met with a few miles off our coasts. It is 

 common in the Arctic Kegions, and Seebohm says may be found at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 We might therefore on an Australian voyage fall in with it in the English Channel or at 

 the Cape of Good Hope. Though subject to changes in plumage, it may always be 

 recognised by the legs and base of the toes being yellow. Mr. Howard Saunders says 

 the dark pectoral band evidently becomes narrower with increasing age, until it is totally 

 lost and the bird is pure white from the chin to the abdomen. It is on rather more 

 slender lines than the Common Skua, which it resembles in its habits, preferring a pirate's 

 life to one of industry. 



Booth, in his well-known ' Catalogue of Birds,' says the Pomarine Skua, though 

 occasionally compelling the Kittiwake to provide it with food, more commonly attacks the 

 larger species of Gulls. 



