GULLS AND TERNS. 4s 
Richardson’s Skua reaches its breeding-grounds 
in the British Islands early in May. Its haunts 
at this season are open moors, at no great distance 
from the sea. Although social at its breeding- 
places, it can scarcely be described as gregarious, 
and the nests are usually scattered up and down 
the moorland area. This Skua appears to pair 
annually, and the nest, always made upon the 
ground, is merely a hollow, carelessly lined with 
a little dry herbage, and sometimes nothing but 
a shallow cavity in the moss. The eggs, normally, 
are two, but sometimes three have been found, and 
occasionally but one. They range from olive to 
brown in ground colour, spotted and speckled with 
darker brown and grayish brown. Incubation is 
performed by the female, and lasts about a month. 
At its breeding-places Richardson’s Skua is very 
demonstrative, and often reveals the situation of 
the nest by its anxious movements above the 
intruder’s head. After the young are reared the 
moors are deserted, and for the remainder of the 
year this Skua is decidedly pelagic in its habits and 
haunts. 
ave now pass .to the Terns. These) pretty 
graceful birds—widely known as “Sea Swallows” — 
differ in many respects from the Gulls and Skuas. 
They most closely resemble the former in general 
appearance, but may be easily distinguished by 
their slender form, small size, and forked tail. Of 
the dozen species that have been regarded as 
