NATATORES. 391 



individual only having come under my observation. It is, 

 however, very numerous on the Prince Edward Islands and 

 Kerguelen's Land, where it breeds on the low flats among 

 moss and grass two or three feet high, making no nest, but 

 laying three brown, dark-spotted eggs on the ground. The 

 young birds are dark brown mottled with white. During 

 the breeding- season the old birds are very fierce, flying 

 round the head of an intruder, dashing every now and then 

 at him, and making at the same time a curious croaking noise 

 in their throats." 



According to Mr. Alfred Newton, the Great Skua is com- 

 mon along the coasts of Iceland. Taber says it is resident, 

 and mentions four breeding-places in the south. As Dr. 

 Kriiper saw it in the north, it probably breeds there also. 

 In Scandinavia it is accounted rare, and it is doubtful if it 

 breeds there ; Mr. Newton does not recollect seeing it more 

 than once during three voyages along the coast of Norway. 

 It is not found in Spitzbergen, and although Von Baer in- 

 cludes it among the birds of Nova Zembla, I am inclined to 

 think he is in error. It is utterly unknown on the coasts of 

 Siberia. The Western or Californian coast is said to be its 

 only habitat in America. In all the situations above-men- 

 tioned, whether the bird be at sea or on the grass-covered 

 bleak islands on which it breeds, its presence is soon made 

 known by its daring spirit during the breeding-season ; it is 

 said that every animal is savagely attacked that approaches too 

 near its nest, and that the Eagle and the Great Gull speedily 

 scurry away, should they have ventured within its precincts. 



I may mention that all the specimens from the southern 

 hemisphere are rather darker in colour and somewhat larger 

 in size than those from the northern. I observed no difl'erence 

 in the colouring of the sexes, which may be thus described : — 



All the upper surface blackish brown, the feathers of the 

 back with whitish shafts and tips ; all the under surface 

 chocolate-brown ; base and shafts of the primaries white. 



