490 LARID/iE. 



Three distinct species of the genus Lestris have been 

 frequently brought together under the name of the Arctic 

 Gull, the Lams parasiticus of Linnseus, briefly described in 

 his Fauna Suecica ; and the measurements of this species, 

 as given by M. Nilsson, the Swedish Professor of Natural 

 History at Lund, in his Ornithologia Suecica, vol. ii. p. 

 182, appear to prove that the true parasiticus of Linnseus is 

 the same species as that to Avhich Mr. Swainson, in the 

 Fauna Boreali Americana, has attached the name of the 

 distinguished naturalist and companion of Sir John Franklin. 

 As all the five species of the genus Lestris^ found in Europe, 

 are visiters to the Arctic regions, and all are alike parasitic 

 in their habits, ornithologists are indebted to Mr. Swainson 

 for thus worthily superseding terms, which, from the advance- 

 ment in natural history, have ceased to convey specific dis- 

 tinction. 



Of the species of this genus which visit this country, Dr. 

 Richardson's Skua is the most numerous. Pennant, in his 

 time, found it breeding at the islands of Jura, Hay, and 

 Rum, in the Hebrides; and in his British Zoology gives 

 figures of it in three different states of plumage. Mr. J. 

 Macgillivray, who visited the Outer Hebrides in the summer 

 of 1840, says, " Richardson's Skua breeds in several spots in 

 the interior of North Uist, and a few stragglers might now 

 and then be observed upon the coasts, chasing the Terns and 

 smaller Gulls." 



In the Orkneys this species has been observed on almost 

 every island, but the principal breeding-places are in Hoy 

 and the Holm of Eddy, or Eday, as mentioned by Mr. 

 Salmon and Mr. Dunn. In some instances these birds fre- 

 quent the tops of the highest hills ; in others they appear to 

 prefer those unfrequented heaths which are low and marshy, 

 but making their nest of dry grass and mosses upon some 

 slight but dry eminence. Mr. Salmon, says, " When the 



