AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 247 



211. RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 



Stcrcorarhis erepidatus. 



A specimen of this bird, in what I take to be the 

 plumage of the second year, was killed by Mr. Robert 

 Whitworth in a meadow near Houghton Mills, 

 Northampton, on October 14:th, 1890, and most 

 courteously presented by him to me in January 1891 ; 

 this is the only occurrence of this species in our county 

 that has hitherto come to my knowledge. As my 

 personal acquaintance with this Skua is confined to 

 having met with it occasionally in the Mediterranean 

 off the coasts of Spain and Italy, I make no excuse 

 for " cribbing " from the 4th edition of Yarrell 

 as to its habits and breeding-haunts : it is there 

 stated that this bird breeds in societies on several 

 islands of the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the 

 Shetland groups, making little or no nest, and 

 generally selecting slight eminences on open unfre- 

 quented moorlands ; any intrusion upon the breeding- 

 ground is resented by swoops, directed from behind 

 or sideways ; for although the bird will actually 

 strike with its wing, the editor has never seen it 

 make the front-attack so characteristic of the Great 

 Skua. " This species feeds principally upon fish, 

 obtained by robbing the smaller Gulls, but it preys 

 upon any wounded or disabled birds that are not too 

 big for it." This Skua has two distinct styles of 

 plumage, one form being entirely sooty, and the 

 other having light underparts ; these two forms 

 interbreed and the consequence is a very great 

 variety of shades of colour and of markings in their 

 produce. All the Skuas seem to subsist chiefly by 



