buffon's skua. 357 



lie has rarely seen this species attack a gull larger than 

 a kittiwake. The same authority, who gives some beau- 

 tiful figures both of the light and dark races of this 

 species, is of opinion that it does not assume its mature 

 plumage till the fifth or even the sixth year. The 

 great variations of j^lumage in this and the next species 

 are certainly sufficiently puzzling to the uninitiated. 



STERCORARIRUS PARASITICUS (Lianfeus). 

 BUFFON'S SKUA. 



This species is decidedly the rarer of the two smaller 

 skuas on the Norfolk coast, in addition to which it is 

 possible that some of the earlier records, from the bird 

 being imperfectly known, may not be altogether trust- 

 worthy. 



Lubbock does not mention Buffon's skua, and Messrs. 

 Gurney and Fisher, although they state that the young 

 birds not unfreqaently occur in autumn, in a similar way 

 to the arctic skua, do not give any instances. Perhaps 

 the first reliable record of the occurrence of this species 

 in Norfolk is to be found in a communication from 

 Professor Newton to the " Zoologist," p. 2149, where he 

 states that in September, 1847, an immature specimen 

 was found dead at Hockham ; in the Newcome collection 

 there is also a young male, which was shot by the late 

 Mr. E. C. Newcome in a turnip field at Methwold, in 

 September, 1854. On the 2;3rd of November, 1849, Mr. 

 Dowell writes that " whilst walking with Overton by 

 Salthouse broad, a skua pursuing a common gull flew 

 over our heads, which was so small that it could hardly 

 have been anything else than this species." A speci- 

 men in immature plumage, lately in Mr. Steven- 

 son's collection, was killed at Salthouse, on October 

 28th, 1862. The year 1867 produced several of these 

 birds; on the 20th September one was killed at 

 Blakeney ; on the 4th October Mr. Gunn records the 

 occurrence of two, one adult male and a bird of the year, 

 at Salthouse (" Zoologist," 1867, p. 992) ; the stomach 



