SKUAS. 401 



as the under parts,, white, with a golden tint on the 

 sides of the neck and head; under tail coverts and 

 thighs brown- grey. The colour, however, varies. The 

 young bird in all the species may be known by the 

 rusty yellow wavy lines on the upper plumage, the 

 grey-white and black -brown transverse bars on the 

 under parts, and, in this and the next, by the nearly 

 even tail. 



Is the commonest of the species on these coasts, but I 

 do not believe either it or the pomarine skua go far inland 

 to breed, like Buffon's. 

 241. L. BUFFONII, Boie. Fjiill Labben. Buffon's Skua. 



D. P. 



The two middle tail feathers very long and pointed, 

 as in the long-tailed duck, 12 to 13 in. long, and in 

 very old birds will often extend from 6 to 7 in. 

 beyond the others. Middle toe ! in., much shorter 

 than tarsus. The front edge of the nostrils lies 

 exactly between the tip of the beak, and the edge of the 

 feathers at its base. Length to the end of the side tail 

 feathers 15 in. ; beak from the forehead 1 in. 1 L, 

 green-brown, black tip ; iris brown ; tarsus lead grey ; 

 web black. Head and neck glossy black; throat 

 white, with a yellow tinge on the sides, in front 

 white ; breast ash grey, which becomes darker on the 

 belly and under the rump ; back and shoulders brown- 

 grey, tinged with ash blue, sometimes altogether 

 ash blue; primaries black, with white shafts on 

 the three first; tail feathers same as the back, but 

 with black tips. The sexes do not differ the least 

 in plumage. 



Although occasionally seen accidentally in other parts of 

 Scandinavia, the peculiar breeding home of the Buffon's 

 skua is on the Lapland fells. They are not always seen in 

 the same numbers every year, and they say (although I 

 fancy this is not correct, for I never but once found the 

 remains of a lemming in one of these birds) that it is the 

 migrations of the lemmings which draw them down to 



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