286 SKUAS. 



legs bluisli ; toes black. Resident and winter 

 migrant. 



Eggs. — 2, brownish-green, spotted and blotched 

 with brown, brownish-gray, and gray ; 2"4 '^ 1'6 inches 

 (plate 136). 



Nest. — A hollow in the ground, witli a little dead 

 grass or moss for lining. 



Richardson's Skua is known as a breeding bird in 

 the Shetlands and Orkneys, and in Sutherland, and on 

 migration on the Scotcli coasts and the east coast 

 of England. It is smaller than the Great Skua, 

 measuring seventeen inches against twenty-one after 

 making allowance for the greater length of the 

 central tail-feathers in the smaller bird. As a moor- 

 land breeder it differs from the Great Skua, the eggs 

 being placed in a hollow in the ground. When 

 inland the birds prey on small mammals and birds 

 and eggs ; and when, after the breeding season, they 

 take to the sea, they follow the piratical methods 

 of the Great Skua, harrying Gulls and Terns and 

 Petrels to make them yield up any fish or other food 

 they may have taken. There is a variety of this 

 Skua that is entirely dark, and in some parts the 

 light and dark birds pair, there being no other 

 difference between them. 



GREAT SKUA — 21 inches ; mottled brown above, rnfous- 

 brown below ; only slight elongation of the central tail- 

 feathers. 



