682 LARID^. 



ing on Novaya Zemlya, and its course can be traced along 

 the coasts and ' tundras ' of Siberia, where Von Middendorff 

 obtained the first authenticated eggs on the Taimyr and the 

 Boganida. It was noticed during the drift of the ' Jeannette ' 

 in the ice to the north of Wrangel Island, and, sparingly, 

 in Bering Sea ; also on the Prybilov and Kuril Islands. It 

 appears to be generally distributed throughout the Arctic 

 regions of America, having been found by Dall and Bannister 

 in Alaska; by Surgeon Anderson, of H.M.S. 'Enterprise,' 

 at Cambridge Bay ; and by Bernard Ross on the Mackenzie 

 River. Numerous specimens were brought home by the 

 various Arctic expeditions, from Melville Peninsula, the 

 North Georgian Islands, and Baffin Bay ; and Major H. W. 

 Feilden, of H.M.S. 'Alert,' found it in considerable num- 

 bers in Smith Sound in June, where it was the only species 

 of Skua observed. It also breeds in Greenland. 



On migration this Skua can be traced along the coast of 

 Europe as far as the Straits of Gibraltar, occasionally strag- 

 gling far inland, and up the Mediterranean as far as Italy. 

 On the east coast of America its range extends to 40° N. lat. ; 

 and there is a specimen in the Berlin Museum said to have 

 been obtained " between the Sandwich Islands and the 

 Philippines." 



The eggs, usually two in number, are laid in a hollow in 

 the fells, and are of an olive-green colour, blotched and 

 scrolled towards the larger end with several shades of 

 brown; they are, as a rule, smaller, greener, and taper more 

 abruptly towards the smaller end than those of the Arctic 

 Skua; average measurements 2 by 1*4 in. The parents 

 defend their nests with the utmost bravery, and Major 

 Feilden states that on several occasions he was obliged 

 to protect himself from their attacks by striking them with 

 his gun-barrel. Wheelwright, who has given an interesting 

 account of the nidification and habits of this species in ' A 

 Spring and Summer in Lapland,' says that their principal 

 food appeared to be the common crowberry {Empetrum 

 nifjraui), a large kind of beetle, and small crustaceans, and 

 he never found anything except crowberries in the young 



