“GULLS 'AND TERNS. 43 
to guard its own domain, the bird utters a loud cry 
which is likened by many observers to the word 
skua or skut. 
The Great Skua resorts to its breeding grounds 
in April, and the eggs are laid in May. As it 
returns yearly to the same places, it very possibly 
pairs for life. The nests are made upon the ground 
of the high moorlands, amongst the heath and 
grass, and are mere hollows in the moss, sometimes 
lined with a little dry grass. The eggs of this 
Skua are two in number, and vary from pale buff to 
dark olive-brown in ground colour, sparingly spotted 
and speckled with dark brown and grayish-brown. 
These eggs are large in size, and very closely 
resemble those of the Herring Gull. But one 
brood is reared in the year, and by the end of 
August the young birds and their parents desert 
the nesting colony, and adopt their pelagic habits. 
Few birds are so courageous in defence of their 
nests as the Skua. Even such predaceous creatures 
as Eagles, Ravens, and dogs are driven off; whilst 
human intruders are screamed at and approached 
within a few feet, the birds wrathfully extending 
their legs as if they would strike, and skimming to 
and fro in rage. Many tales of this bird’s daring 
at its nesting places are current in Shetland, where 
it is known almost universally as the “ Bonxie.” 
Our second species is Richardson’s Skua, the 
Stercorarius richardsont of some systematists, the 
S. crepidatus of others. Although not quite so 
