20 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



largest. Comparatively little is known of its breeding habits; it 

 breeds in remote places, and is said to form a rude nest of grass and 

 moss, situated on dry elevated spots in marshes. The eggs of all the 

 Skuas are very similar in appearance — pale olive-green or yellowish- 

 gray in ground-color — irregularly blotched and spotted with two shades 

 of brown ; those of the present species are said to be thinner in form 

 and more pointed than those of the others. Dr. Brewer describes an 

 egg procured in Greenland as rounded-ovoid; its ground-color, deep 

 olive-drab, sparingly spotted with slate-color and two shades of umber, 

 chiefly at the larger end, where they become confluent. There are also 

 a very few scattered dots of black. Size, 2.25 by 1.70. 



37. Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.) [698.] 



Parasitic Jaeger. 



Hab. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, southward in winter to South Africa and South Amer- 

 ica. Breeds in high northern districts, and winters from the Middle States and California southward to 

 Brazil and Chili. 



The Parasitic Jaegar, like the others of this family, is eminently 

 rapacious, and it is known as the " Man-of-War," from its habits of 

 pursuing and robbing the terns and smaller gulls. It breeds in the 

 interior of Arctic America, and is especially abundant in the Anderson 

 River region. A common bird in the more northern portion of Asia 

 and Europe. So far as known, its general habits do not difier from 

 those of the Pomarine. It is given as the most common of the Skuas 

 oflf the coast of Norway, but does not go far inland to breed. The 

 nest of this species is made on islands or on the margins of lakes ; it is 

 a mere depression in the ground, lined with a few grasses and withered 

 leaves. In Greenland it is said to be a resident species, and it breeds 

 in Iceland on the moors far inland. In the Shetland Islands this bird 

 breeds in communities, fifty or more pairs congregating at the same 

 place. The eggs are usually two in number, sometimes three, and are 

 as variable in ground color and markings as those of the Eskimo 

 Curlew. They vary from olive drab to green, gray and brown, marked 

 with several shades of chocolate, brown and an obscure stone gray, 

 distributed over the entire egg. Size from 2.00 to 2.40 long, and from 

 1.50 to 1.70 broad. 



38. Stercorarius longlcaudus Vieill. [699.] 



Lioug-tailed Jaeger. 



Hab. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, south in winter to the Gulf of Mexico. 



The same plundering habits mark the character of this bird as are 

 peculiar to any of the Jaegers or Skuas. It is distributed in the breed- 

 ing season throughout all parts of the region near the Arctic Circle, in 



