PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 201 



2-18 x 1-61 in. [55-5x41-1 mm.]. Hantzsch states that incubation is chiefly per- 

 formed by the hen, but that she is relieved for some hours by her mate. He quotes 

 Faber as giving the period as 24 days, but says that others estimate it as 28 days. 

 Faber also states that the fledging period of the young is 40 days. The breeding 

 birds arrive at the nesting-grounds about the end of April, and the first eggs are laid 

 at the end of May or early in June in Scotland. Only a single brood is reared in the 

 season. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Fish robbed from other sea-birds, the eggs and young of various 

 species, chiefly Ducks, Waders, Terns, and Gulls, occasionally perhaps adult birds, 

 such as small Waders. To these it adds carrion, crustaceans, molluscs, insects, 

 worms, and small rodents. The young are fed on fish and sometimes insects, also 

 berries, by both parents. [F. B. K.] 



BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA [Stercordrius longicaudus 

 Vieillot ; Stercwarius parasiticus (Linnaeus). French, Idbbe d longue queue, ; 

 German, Heine Eaub-Mowe ; Italian, labbo codalungd}. 



1. Description. This skua may be distinguished, when adult, by the great 

 length of the central tail feathers or " streamers," and the coloration of the shafts 

 of the primaries, only the two outermost being white. The sexes are alike, and 

 there is no seasonal change of plumage. (PL 110.) Length, including the tail 

 " streamers," 23 in. [584-20 mm.] ; tail streamers, 8 in. [203-20 mm.]. The top of the 

 head and nape are black, the rest of the upper parts greyish brown, save the lower 

 cheeks and sides of the neck, which are white more or less tinged with buffish 

 yellow, and the tail feathers, which are black, contrasting with the " streamers," 

 which are brown. The throat, neck, and forepart of the breast are white, the rest 

 of the under parts greyish brown, darkest on the flanks and abdomen. Legs olive- 

 grey, toes black. Iris dark brown. The juvenile plumage a sooty browhy ike 

 flank feathers and upper tail-coverts having buff margins. The characteristic 

 adult dress is not attained for several years. The young in down are of a sooty 

 brown, slightly paler on the under parts, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. To the British Isles this species is chiefly an autumn 

 visitor on migration, although a few have been observed on spring passage, occasion- 

 ally as late as June. It is most frequent on the east side of Great Britain. Its 

 breeding range probably includes Spitsbergen, where it has frequently been observed 

 in summer in pairs, but no nest has actually been found, and Cape Flora in the Franz- 



