106 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



to obtain. It breeds regularly in Ireland, where 

 my brother photographed two nests at Cappagh in 

 1896 by the aid of a very long ladder, several 

 strong guide-ropes, and a small army of men, and 

 Mr. Ussher tells me in a letter that a pair nested 

 again this year in the same locality. 



The nest is generally placed on the branch of 

 a fir at a considerable height from the ground, 

 although specimens have been found in England 

 in such lowly growths as juniper and furze bushes. 

 It is composed of slender twigs, dried grass, and 

 moss, lined internally with vegetable or animal 

 down, and occasionally feathers. 



The eggs, numbering from four to six, are 

 greyish-white tinged with pale bluish-green or blue, 

 and speckled and spotted with rusty and dark 

 brown, and occasionally streaked with the darker 

 colour. Generally the markings are scattered over 

 the surface, but sometimes they form a zone at 

 the larger end. The eggs resemble those of the 

 Goldfinch very closely, but the presence of the 

 parent bird will, of course, always settle any doubts 

 as to their identity. 



SKUA, GREAT, 



THIS bird supplies a most striking object lesson 

 of what may be accomplished in the saving of a 

 species from extinction by a measure of effective 

 protection during the breeding season. In the late 

 Dr. Saxby's time there were some six or seven 

 pairs of Great or Common Skuas breeding on the 

 top of Hernia Ness, in Unst, and he expressed a 

 fear that the banishment of even these was but a 



