543 | 
THE POMARINE JAEGER. 
time is the signal for all the birds near to come circling about, though not 
within easy gun-shot. By a careful approach one may now and then find a 
small party swimming about in some secluded pool. 
“The charming grace of movement exhibited at such times, combined 
with their tasteful elegance of attire, form one of the most pleasing sights 
one could witness as they swim buoyantly from side to side of the pool, grace- 
fully nodding their heads, now pausing for an instant to arrange a feather 
or to daintily gather some fragment of food, and now floating idly about, 
wafted by the slight breeze, which at intervals ripples the surface of the 
water. A more common, but scarcely less pleasing sight, is presented when, 
unconscious of observation, they walk sedately along the border of the water, 
never departing from their usual grace of movement. Their food is generally 
found in such places, where the receding water furnishes a bountiful supply. 
The only demonstrations I have observed during the pairing time consist of 
a kind of solemn bowing of the head and body; but sometimes, with the head 
lowered and thrust forward, they will run back and forth in front of the 
object of their regard, or again, a pair may be seen to salute each other by 
alternately bowing or lowering their heads; but their courtship is characterized 
by a lack of the rivalry and vehemence exhibited by birds. 
“The nesting is usually in some thin tuft of grass on a level spot, but 
often in an open place concealed by a few straggling blades of small carices. 
The male scratches a shallow depression in the soft earth, which is usually 
lined with a thin layer of fragments of old grass blades, upon which the eggs, 
numbering from three to four, are deposited about the last of May or first 
of June.” 
No. 257. 
POMARINE JAEGER. 
A. O. U. No. 36. Stercorarius pomarinus (Temm.). 
Synonyms.—PoMATORHINE JAEGER; POMARINE SKUA; GULL-HUNTER. 
Description.— Adult, light phase: ‘Top and sides of head, upper parts (ex- 
cept back of neck, and crissum brownish slate or dusky; rest of head and neck and 
under parts white; the region of ear-coverts and around on hind-neck tinged with 
straw-yellow ; central feathers of tail projecting three or four inches beyond most 
of the others, their breadth sustained to the abruptly rounded tip; bill horn-color 
tipped with black; feet and legs black. Adult, dark phase: Entirely brownish 
slate, except sides of hind and hind-neck often tinged with straw-yellow as before. 
Young, light phase: Upper parts brownish dusky, the feathers of the back spar- 
ingly tipped with whitish or dull buffy; those of the rump and upper tail-coverts 
spotted and barred with the same; head, neck and under parts dull buffy, every- 
