PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 197 



5. Food. Fish robbed from other species, the young and eggs of other 

 species, carrion, crustaceans, and molluscs, occasionally also adult birds, such as 

 kittiwakes (see p. 214). The young are fed, chiefly on fish, by both parents, [p. B. K.] 



POMATORHINE-SKUA [Stercorariits pomarinus (Temminck) ; 

 Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temminck). Black Allan, molberry, Tom Harry. 

 French, labbe pomarin; German, mitttere Raub-Mowe; Italian, stercorario 

 mezzano]. 



i. Description. The pomatorhine-skua is to be recognised from its congeners 

 by the broad rounded ends of the central tail feathers. These feathers are 

 much longer than the rest and form " streamers," of which the vanes are twisted 

 vertically. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration. 

 (PL 110.) Length (including the "tail streamers") 21 in. [533-40 mm.]. The 

 crown of the head, region of the lores, and fore-part of the cheeks are black. The 

 feathers of the neck which are acuminate and throat are white suffused with 

 yellow. The rest of the upper parts are of an umber-brown. The lower neck 

 feathers are barred with black, forming a more or less conspicuous pectoral bar ; the 

 breast is dull white, while the uppermost flank feathers and abdomen are umber. 

 The pectoral band becomes less conspicuous with age, and there is a tendency, 

 until full maturity is attained, to develop striations on the flanks and upper and 

 under tail-coverts after the autumn moult. Beak brown, legs and toes reddish black. 

 There is also a dark form of this species. According to Kolthoff's observations 

 in N.W. Greenland, this form may be as dark as the Arctic-skua, and between 

 it and the light form all intermediate variations may be seen (Naumann, Vogel 

 Mitteleuropas, xi. 313). In the immature plumage there is less yellow on the neck, 

 and the flanks and under parts are more barred. The juvenile plumage differs 

 from that of later and adult stages in having the feathers of the upper parts sooty 

 brown margined with rufous, the major coverts and secondaries tipped with 

 rufous ; the tail-coverts barred with rufous and black ; the under parts show 

 some variation in hue, but may be described as of an ashy brown, more or less 

 conspicuously striated with darker brown. Legs and toes often blue or grey in 

 patches, and the bases of the toes yellowish. The young in down is of a sooty 

 brown, with a tinge of rufous in the back. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species is only known as a fairly 



