LAKID,-E. 



671 



THE GREAT SKUA. 



Stercorarius catarrhactes (Linnaeus). 



This fine species is the largest European representative of the 

 small group of Parasitic Gulls, the members of which obtain their 

 food chiefly by robbing the smaller or more cowardly sea-fowl. In 

 the British Islands the only breeding-places of the Great Skua or 

 ' Bonxie ' are in the Shetlands, where a well-known colony on Unst, 

 and another on Foula may be mentioned, at both of which the bird is 

 protected as far as possible. It seldom visits the Orkneys or the Outer 

 Hebrides, and is decidedly scarce along the west side of Scotland, 

 though occasionally met with on the east during the colder months ; 

 and the same may be said of England, down to and throughout the 

 Channel : but it seems to be rarer than is really the case, because 

 it frequents the fishing-grounds far out at sea, where the (iulls which 

 it robs are plentiful ; exceptionally, after severe weather, it has been 

 met with inland. In Ireland it is almost unknown. 



The Great Skua breeds in the Eseroe Islands, though diminished 

 in numbers by the ' neb-toll ' to which rapacious birds are subject ; 



