LARID.E. 



673 



THE POMATORHINE SKUA. 



Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temminck). 



This species is of tolerably regular occurrence on the coasts of 

 Great Britain — especially along the eastern sea-board, on which a 

 remarkably large migration was noticed in the autumn of 1S79, 

 and another, slightly smaller and less extensive, in October 1S80. 

 Some individuals remain all the winter on our southern shores, and, 

 after severe gales, have been met with far inland ; but compara- 

 tively few are seen on the spring passage. In Ireland the appear- 

 ance of this bird is more irregular. 



The Pomatorhine Skua is merely a visitor to the northern coasts of 

 Europe, and has not even been found breeding on Spitsbergen, 

 Franz-Josef Land or Novaya Zemlya ; but it probably nests all along 

 the tundras of Asiatic Siberia, where Dr. von Middendorff obtained 

 its eggs on the Taimyr in lat. 74° N. It is common on both sides 

 of Bering Sea, especially at the mouth of the Yukon in Alaska, and 

 thence is said to occur across the Arctic regions to Baffin Bay ; while 

 in Greenland it appears to breed in colonies northward of Egedes- 



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