BUFFON^S SKUA. 359 



rich and rank foliage, must have altered its character before the breeding- 

 grounds of Buffon^s Skua are reached. The stunted willows may be 

 almost all gone, and the creeping birches far and far between, like un- 

 healthy ivy-plants trailing on the ground, with nothing up which they can 

 climb ; the gay flowers may have given place to almost as gay mosses and 

 lichens, and of the rich foliage little may be left beyond dwarfed cran- 

 berries and crowberries ; but the country must look barren before the nests 

 of Buffon's Skua are reached. Above lat. 72° in Siberia, or in a similar 

 climate high up on the Scandinavian fells, is the home of Buffon^s 

 Skua, where the oases of moss and lichens are scattered in patches over 

 the black peat or equally barren yellow clay. They are described by 

 Middendorff as arriving at their breeding-grounds on the Taimur penin- 

 sula on the 17th of June. Eggs were laid on the 4th of July, and 

 on the 27th young in down appeared. On the 16th of September they 

 were still at their breeding-grounds, and one was seen as late as the 3rd of 

 October. 



BuflFon^s Skua breeds in colonies, but the nests are scattered over a con- 

 siderable area. It seems to be a very gregarious bird. When Harvie- 

 Brow^n and I w^ere in the valley of the Petchora, we saw nothing of this 

 bird on migration. Probably it had follow^ed the coast-line, for when we 

 reached the delta we found it had arrived. We were apparently some 

 distance south of its breeding-grounds, but we often met with small parties 

 of five or six, all adult birds. On the tundra it was most often seen in 

 pairs, and we often remarked its habit of occasionally remaining for a long 

 time in one spot on the ground, probably digesting its food. In the 

 stomachs of those we shot we found the remains of beetles and cranberries; 

 but it does not confine itself to this food even in the breeding-season. On 

 the muddy margin of an inland sea connected with the lagoons of the 

 Petchora I shot with one barrel a young Dunlin and broke the wing of 

 an old bird, whilst Avith the second barrel I killed a Little Stint. The 

 cartridge-extractor of my gun was out of order, and it took me some time 

 to reload. The w^ounded Dunlin ran a few yards when a couple of BuflPon^s 

 Skuas came up, quarrelled almost under my nose for the wounded bird, 

 and carried it off before I could struggle through the mud to the rescue. 

 On the 3rd of July we met with a large flock of BuflFon^s Skuas : we were 

 strolling over a piece of marshy ground near the Petchora, when we caught 

 sight of a large flock of these birds in the distance. Just at that moment 

 a pair of Grey Plovers rose, and Harvie-Brown stopped to watch them 

 whilst I marched after the Skuas, which had all alighted on the ground, 

 not far from a small flock of perhaps a score Siberian Herring-Gulls. 

 Before I had got within a hundred yards of them, the Gulls rose and flew 

 towards me, followed soon afterwards by the Skuas. I let the Gulls go by, 

 and took the nearest Skua as soon as he came within range. Fortunately 



