362 



BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



SKUA, GREAT. See SKUA, COMMON. 



Parent 

 about 



SKUA, RICHARDSON'S. 



(Stercorarius crepidatus'} 

 Order GAVI^: ; Family LARID^: (GULLS). 



Description of 

 Birds. Length 

 twenty inches. Bill mode- 

 rately long, strong, straight, 

 except at the tip, where 

 it is hooked, bluish lead- 

 colour at the base, and 

 blackish elsewhere. Irides 

 dark brown. This bird is 

 subject to considerable indi- 

 vidual variation, and there 

 are two distinct and well- 

 marked varieties, known as 

 " light " and " dark " which interbreed freely. The 

 dark variety is more common in low latitudes, and 

 the light one in high latitudes, as might be ex- 

 pected. 



Mr. Seebohm, in describing the bird, says : "In 

 the adult of the dark form, the whole of the plumage 

 is an almost uniform dark sooty -brown, slightly 

 suffused with slate -grey on the upper -parts, and 

 with a bronzy yellow on the sides of the neck. 



" In the adult of the light form, the slate-grey 

 of the upper-parts is a little more pronounced than 

 in the dark form. The general colour of the under- 

 parts is white, shaded with brown on the sides 

 of the breast, the vent, and the under tail-coverts ; 

 the white on the throat extends round the sides 



RICHARDSON'S SKUA SITTING. 



