SKUA 869 
every bird almost, from an Eagle downwards, is repelled by buffets 
or something worse. 
The largest European species is the Stercorarius catarrhactes of 
ornithologists—the “Skooi” or “Bonxie” of the Shetlanders, a 
bird in size equalling a Herring-GuLL, Larus argentatus. The sexes 
do not differ in colour, which is of a dark brown, somewhat 
lighter beneath; but the primaries have at the base a patch of 
white, visible even when the wings are closed, and forming, when 
they are spread, a conspicuous band. ‘The bill and feet are black. 
This is a species of comparatively limited range, breeding only in 
some two or three localities in the Shetlands, about as many in the 
Feroes,! and hardly more in Iceland. Out of the breeding-season 
it shews itself in most parts of the North Atlantic, but never seems 
to stray further south than Gibraltar or Morocco, and it is there- 
fore a matter of much interest to find the Southern Ocean inhabited 
by a bird—the “ Port Egmont Hen” of Cook’s Voyages—which so 
closely resembles the Skua as to have been for a long while 
regarded as specifically identical with it, but is now usually recog- 
nized as distinct under the name of S. antarcticus. ‘This bird, 
characterized by its stout, deep bill and want of rufous tint on its 
lower plumage, has an extensive range, from the Falkland Islands 
past Kerguelen Land to Australian waters and those of New 
Zealand, while occasionally visiting the coast of Madagascar and 
the Cape of Good Hope as well perhaps as Ceylon. Another allied 
species hitherto only met with near the south-polar ice is recognized 
by Mr. Saunders (Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 321, pl. i). On the 
western coast of South America, making its way into the Straits of 
Magellan, and passing along the coast so far as Rio Janeiro, is found 
S. chilensis, distinguished among other characters by the cinnamon 
tint of its lower plumage. All these are now placed by Mr. Saunders 
(tom. cit. p. 313) in a distinct genus—WMegalestris. 
Three other smaller species of Stercorarius are known, and 
each is more widely distributed than those just mentioned, but 
the home of all is in the more northern parts of the earth, 
though in winter two of them go very far south, and, crossing the 
equator, shew themselves on the seas that wash the Cape of Good 
Hope, Australia, New Zealand and Peru. The first of them is 
S. pomatorhinus (often and originally mis-spelt pomarinus), about the 
1 It has long been subjected to persecution in these islands, a reward being 
paid for its head, and but very few pairs now exist there. On the other hand, 
in the Shetlands a fine was exacted for its death, as it was believed to protect 
the sheep against Eagles. Yet for all this it would long ago have been extir- 
pated there, and have ceased to be a British bird in all but name, but for the 
special protection afforded it by several members of two families (Edmondston of 
Unst and Scott of Melby), whose exertions on its behalf deserve the praise of all 
ornithologists, and*were recognized in 1891 by the award to their representatives 
of the silver medal of the Zoological Society of London. 
