294 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
tipped with white, outermosjgprimary with the outer web and 
tip black; innermost ones grey ; the rest either black-tipped 
or subterminally black ; rest of plumage pure white; bill 
yellow ; legs and feet blackish ; irides dark brown. Length I5°5 
to 16 inches ; culmen 1°4; wing 12 to 12°5; tail 5°5; tarsus 
1°3,; Aind toe absent or only rudimentary. 
Adult (Winter): Hind neck slate-grey ; nape, top of 
head and ear-coverts streaked with dark grey. 
Immature Birds (January): Feathers in front of eye 
and ear-coverts dusky-grey ; lower neck behind, carpal joint 
and lesser wing-coverts conspicuously marked with black ; edge 
of wing and outer webs of longer primaries black ; outermost 
tail-feathers all white, next pair with a blackish spot on tip of 
inner web ; rest of tail-feathers broadly tipped with blackish ; 
tail distinctly forked ; bill nearly black. Older birds lose the 
blackish neck-band, and retain merely a few spots about the 
lesser wing-coverts. 
Distribution : Breeds in Arctic and Sub-arctic Europe 
including the British Isles, also on the Siberian coast and in 
Arctic North America. Occurs during winter down to the 
Mediterranean, the Canaries and Bermuda. 
Habitat : The sea-coast: marine cliffs. 
Subfamily STERCORALIINA. 
Genus STERCORARIUS. 
GREAT SKUA,. 
Stercorarius catarrhactes Zinn. 
Adult: Prevailing colour dark brown, somewhat lighter 
beneath; nape and back streaked with reddish-brown, or 
margined and streaked with greyish-white ; primaries blackish, 
white at bases; axillaries sooty ; d2// (hooked at tip), cere, legs 
and feet black ; irides dark brown. Length 22 to 25 inches ; 
culmen 1°75 to.2°; wings \talll7-; tarsus .2°-6. 
Young: Appear to resemble adults closely but are more 
narrowly marked above with chestnut. 
Distribution : Breeds in Iceland, the Faroes and Shet- 
lands, also to the north of Hudson’s Straits. Wanders in 
