ARCTIC - C KUA. 269 



brown, paler on the belly and vent ; the centre of 

 the feathers clove-brown; mantle and lower back 

 and wings clove-brown, feathers edged with yel- 

 lowish brown ; quills and tail blackish brown, the 

 former tipped with yellowish white; centre tail- 

 feathers exceed the others by half an inch. 



ARCTIC SKUA, LESTRIS PARASITICUS. The True 

 Arctic Skua has been confounded with the pre- 

 ceding, but it is a much more rare species, and 

 is at once distinguished by its smaller size, more 

 graceful proportions, and by the very elongated 

 centre-feathers of the tail. Three specimens only 

 of this Skua have been obtained on the north- 

 eastern coast of England. The Zoological Society 

 are said to have received it from Orkney, and we 

 possess a single specimen from the same islands. 

 We are not sure, however, that it breeds even in 

 the more northern parts of our limits, for most of 

 the older notices of the Arctic Gulls are referrible 

 to the preceding bird. It has been obtained on the 

 French coasts, but is also apparently rare there. Its 

 true station appears much farther northward, and 

 we have received, at different times, specimens by 

 the northern trading vessels, chiefly the whalers. 

 Mr. Audubon states that it ranges along the southern 

 coasts as far as the Mexican Gulf and the shores 

 of the Floridas, " but I never met with a single 

 individual in summer, even in the most northern 

 parts." 



