304 



CHARADRIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



a branch, a broad leaf-stalk, or a coral reef. The nesting habits of 

 Naenia are unknown, l)ut it frequents rocky, cavernous shores. 



Bhyncliops has a peculiarly low flight, rapid and gliding, with 

 many a turn and twist, which has gained it the name of Skimmer. 

 The food, often sought towards evening, appears to consist of small 

 fish and crustaceans ; it is procured by keeping the bill wide open, 

 with the long mandible plougliing through the water or mud, and 

 leaving a distinct furrow in its track. The cry is a low harsh 

 scream or shrill twittering note. A hollow in some sandy river- 

 bank or island serves to contain the three or four grey, green, 

 buff, or white eggs, with blotches and streaks of purplish-grey 

 and dark brown. The female is said to sit only at night or in 

 stormy weather, and the young to be unable to fly for several 

 weeks,^ but the remaining habits resemble those of Terns. 



The sexes in the Laridae are invariably similar, the plumage 

 being grey and white, or more rarely blackish or brown, details 

 of which will be found below. The young are duller, being- 

 mottled with brown or black in immature Gulls. The frequent 

 black or brown heads, often lacking at certain ages or times of year, 

 the seasonal changes generally, the neck-collar of Xema sabinii and 

 Bliodostethia, and the rosy tint on the breast in the latter species, 

 Larus franklini, and Sterna dougalli may be noticed in passing. 

 The members of the Family range in size from the Glaucous 

 to the Little Gull ; the largest Tern being the Caspian, and the 

 smallest, as its name indicates, the Least Tern. 



Sub-fam. 1. Stercorariinae. Of this widely spread but curi- 

 ously distributed group, Megalestris catarrhactes, the Great Skua or 

 Bonxie, a fine rufous-brown species, with a white wing-patch which 

 is very conspicuous in flight, breeds in Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland, 

 and possibly north of Hudson Strait, occurring in South Greenland 

 and Norway, and reaching New England and Gibraltar in winter. 

 It nests in colonies, though each pair occupies a distinct area, which 

 the parents defend with exceptional boldness, sv/ooping down swiftly 

 with a heavy rush, and dropping the feet when at close quarters, 

 as if to strike an intruder. Unlike their smaller kin, which will 

 attack a man from any side and hit him with their wings, these 

 birds commonly aim directly at the face, and their onslaught, if not 

 averted, is really dangerous, while they only just clear the head 

 when threatened with a stick. The two eggs, deposited in a depres- 



^ Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Amer. ii. 1884, p. 194. 



