266 POMARINE SKUA. 



Pomarine Gull^ Skua or Jager of British author?. 

 Next in size and strength is the Pomarine Skua, 

 a winter visitant only to tho British isles, and not 

 known to breed within their range. Mr Yarrcll 

 has given many instances of specimens being ob- 

 tained on the English coasts, showing it to be by no 

 means a very rare species. We have observed it 

 at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and have ob- 

 tained several specimens as high up as Newhaven. 

 Its flight is very swift and rapid, and when present 

 in the Firth it may almost always be seen making 

 its attacks on the lesser gulls. Its proper range ap- 

 pears to be Northern Europe and the Arctic Seas, 

 but the northern travellers did not often find it 

 breeding; in one voyage the eggs were found on 

 the margin of a small lake. * Audubon met with it 

 near the harbour of Little Macatina, on the Labra- 

 dor coast, where it pursued the kittiwakes and 

 ring-billed gulls, and when these birds could not 

 supply them, picked up the fishes that had been 

 thrown on shore. 



The legs of this species are sometimes pied black 

 and yellow. 



* Capt. James C. Kos8. 



