STERCORARIID.E — THE SKUAS AND JAEGERS — STERCORARIUS. 341 



the first week in June ; after that date it was to be seen at every hour of the day, 

 searching for lemmings. It lays its two eggs in hollows in the ground, and defends 

 them with great bravery. On several occasions Captain Feilden had to strike at the 

 old birds with his gun-barrel to defend himself against their attacks as he was rob- 

 bing their nests. He could always easily distinguish this species from the parasiticus 

 by the mottled color of its tarsus and the webs of the feet, which in the latter are 

 black. 



Mr. Kumlien mentions meeting with a few on the Upper Cumberland waters in 

 June; but none breed so far south. It is one of the first birds to come in the spring; 

 and — as he has no doubt — its range is more northerly than that of any other bird 

 of this genus. 



According to Middendorff this is one of the common species of Eastern Siberia, 

 where it is found to the extreme northern parts of the main land and also on the 

 islands north of Asia. Mr. G. Gillett gives it as quite abundant on Nova Zembla, 

 especially on the west coast and in the Kara Sea, where it was found in all stages of 

 plumage. Every flock of Kittiwakes was attended by a number of the Skuas, which 

 swooped down upon them in the manner of Hawks, and obliged them to disgorge 

 their prey. Von Heuglin also found these birds very numerous in the same locality, 

 generally in pairs. 



Professor Newton mentions having seen a specimen of this Skua obtained by Pro- 

 fessor Malmgren on the 12th of July near the Russian Hut, in Advent Bay, Spits- 

 bergen, who also observed it on two other occasions in Ice Sound ; but that it breeds 

 in that region has not been, as yet, definitely ascertained. 



According to Mr. Wheelwright, although it is occasionally seen in other parts of 

 Scandinavia, its peculiar breeding-home is on the Lapland fells. There it is not always 

 seen in the same numbers every year. The first eggs he obtained were found on the 

 3d of June ; and never but once did he find more than two eggs in a nest. The nest 

 is nothing more than a few pieces of dry hay scratched together on the ground, gen- 

 erally near the water, never on the real snow-fells. Although it breeds in colonics, 

 he never found two nests close together. In the young bird just ready to fly, the 

 plumage greatly resembles that of the common Skua, and the tail is perfectly even. 



Richardson found this species breeding in considerable numbers in the Barren 

 Grounds, at a distance from the Arctic coast. It feeds on the shelly mollusca so 

 plentiful in the small lakes of the Fur Countries, and harasses the Gulls just as 

 others of this genus do. 



It is common in the Bay of Fundy and on the coast of Maine in the fall, and again 

 in the spring, and is occasionally seen off Cape Ann and Cape Cod during the win- 

 ter ; and occasionally in very severe weather a few of these birds are driven upon the 

 coast. A single specimen is recorded by Mr. Giraud as having been taken on Long 

 Island, shot in the vicinity of Islip. 



During the winter — according to Audubon — this species ranges .along our south- 

 ern coast as far as the Gulf of Mexico, usually singly or in pairs. In April he observed 

 it congregating in flocks of from ten to fifteen, as if for the purpose of returning north 

 to breed. 



According to Selby, it breeds on several of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and 

 is gregarious during that period ; the situations selected for its nests being unfre- 

 quented heaths at some distance from the shores. The nest is composed of dry grass 

 and mosses, and its eggs are said to be of a dark oil-green, with irregular blotches of 

 liver-brown. It is very courageous at this season, and attacks every intruder within 

 the limits of its territory by pouncing and striking at the head with bill and wings. 



