LESTRIS.] AVES NATATORES. 281 



DESCRIPT. Head, and region of the eyes, deep brown: neck, and all 

 the under parts, reddish ash, tinged with brown: back and scapulars 

 dark ferruginous brown, the feathers edged at the sides with dusky 

 brown; wing-coverts, secondary quills, and tail-feathers, brown: basal 

 half of the primaries white ; the remaining portion deep brown ; the 

 first with the whole of the outer web brown; shafts of the quills, as 

 well as those of the tail-feathers, white : bill black, the base brownish : 

 irides brown : orbits black : legs covered with large black scales ; back 

 part of the tarsus with very little indication of the projecting asperities 

 which characterize the next species : claws strong and black. Obs. The 

 plumage of this species is not subject to any important variation, either 

 from age or season. One, which lived ten years in confinement, ex- 

 hibited no tendency towards the light colour which characterizes the 

 adult under plumage of the other species of the genus. (Egg.) Olive- 

 brown, blotched with darker brown : long. diam. two inches nine lines ; 

 trans, diam. two inches. 



Met with in small numbers in the Shetland Islands, particularly in 

 those of Foulah and Unst, where they remain the whole year. Of 

 very rare and accidental occurrence -in the southern parts of Britain. 

 Montagu mentions one that was shot at Sandwich in Kent, in the Winter 

 of 1800. Another has been since killed in Somersetshire. A bold and 

 rapacious species, obtaining its food principally by pursuing the larger 

 kinds of Gulls, and compelling them to disgorge the fish which they 

 have obtained. Flight very impetuous. Breeds in large companies 

 on high hills and unfrequented moors. Nest constructed of a few dried 

 weeds. Eggs two in number. 



304. L. pomarinus, Temm. {Pomarine Skua.) 

 Central tail-feathers projecting three inches; of equal 

 breadth throughout ; rounded at the tips : tarsus two 

 inches and half a line ; covered posteriorly with rough 

 angular scales. 



L. pomarinus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 793. Faun. Bor. 

 Amer. partii. p. 429. Pomarine Skua, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. xm. 

 p. 216. pi. 24. Selb. Illust. vol. n. p. 517. pi. 101**. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-one inches; the same, central tail- 

 feathers excluded, eighteen inches : length of the bill (above) one inch 

 seven lines, (from the gape) one inch ten lines ; of the tarsus two inches 

 and half a line ; of the central tail-feathers nine inches six lines ; of the 

 wing fifteen inches. Faun. Bor. Am. 



DESCRIPT. (Male and female in perfect plumage.) Face, crown of the 

 head, occiput, back, wings, and tail, of a uniform deep brown : neck 

 straw-yellow ; the feathers on the nape long and subulate : ear-coverts, 

 throat, breast and belly, white; vent, and under tail-coverts, blackish 

 brown ; flanks, and sides of the breast, blotched with the same : shafts 

 of the quills and tail-feathers white, except at their tips : bill dark 

 brown, the tip black: legs black: tail slightly rounded, excluding the 

 central pair of feathers ; these last of equal breadth throughout, and 

 rounded at the tips : tarsus posteriorly very rugose, clothed with angular 

 projecting scales. (Middle age.) "The whole plumage above and below 

 very deep brown ; the feathers on the neck and nape slightly elongated, 

 tinged with yellow : central tail-feathers shorter than in the adult in 



