422 STERCORARIINA. 
the sides, axillaries, flanks and the lesser under wing-coverts 
next the body, and the whole of the exterior and longer tail- 
coverts are deep brown; the rest of the lower wing-coverts, 
except just at the edge of the wing, are white, here and there 
slightly mottled, especially at the edge of the wing with dusky 
brown ; the longer axillaries are mottled white along their bases. 
Within our limits the Persian Shearwater is found along the 
Sind Coast and at the mouths of the Indus. . 
Faminy, Laride. 
Bill straight, compressed ; wings long and pointed; tail long ; 
tarsi with transverse scutze in front; hind-toe usually short. 
SuB-FAMILY, Stercorariine. 
Base of bill covered with a cere, tip hooked; first quill longest ; 
nostrils median. 
Genus, Stercorarius, Brisson. 
Keel of bill covered with a bony or membraneous cere ; first 
quill longest. 
Stercorarius asiaticus, Hume. 
977ter.—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 314. 
THE SKUA. 
Length, 19; expanse, 45; wing, 18; tail, 64; tarsus, 1:8; 
bill from gape, 2°02. 
Bill brown ; cere pale greenish brown ; irides brown ; legs and 
feet dull black. 
I extract the following from Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of 
Sind :— 
“This is not uncommon off the Manora headland, and along 
the Sind and Mekran Coasts. There is some difference of opinion 
in regard to the identity of this bird. Mr. Hume, in Vol. I, 
p. 268 (Stray Feathers) refers it to Z. parasiticus, but in his 
observations on the species states it may not improbably here- 
after turn out that both his specimens and those of Major 
Tickell’s belong to a distinct species intermediate between poma- 
rinus and parasiticus, in which case he says it may stand as 
Stercorarius asiaticus, nobis. In Vol. V of the same journal 
he points out the differences between LZ. parasiticus and his 
Stercorarius asiaticus. 
The following is the description of the species obtained by him 
at Pusnee on the Mekran Coast :— 
“The central tail feathers are manifestly imperfectly developed, 
one projects 0°75 and the other 0°25 beyond the rest of the tail ; 
the bird is obviously in a state of change of plumage, as the two 
first primaries in each wing are old, and comparatively pale brown 
with conspicuous white shafts only tinged brownish for 
about 05 immediately above the tips, while all the othe, 
