THE GREAT AND ARCTIC-SKUAS 211 



handled, and it had ceased to attack. 1 What other notes it or the 

 larger species may utter have still to be recorded. 



Dogs and other quadrupeds trespassing near the nests are, as 

 might be expected, promptly attacked. According to Saxby, the 

 Arctic-skua will give a dog smart scratches on the back, and so make 

 the creature and its fur fly at the same time. The success of this 

 manoauvre, however, depends upon the character of the dog. Mac- 

 gillivray relates that while one of his dogs avoided attack by keeping 

 close to his heels, the other met it by springing into the air and snap- 

 ping. This is perhaps the method of defence adopted by the Arctic- 

 fox when, as noted by Kolthoff in Spitsbergen, it deliberately enters 

 a skua colony for eggs and young, and it may be the raids of this and 

 other predaceous quadrupeds that have led the Arctic-skua to adopt 

 a means of defence which is common to a large number of weaker 

 species, such as Ducks, game-birds, and Passerine birds. It is that of 

 feigning, or seeming to feign, "broken leg, broken wing, and broken 

 prospects in general," as Saxby puts it ; the scene taking place, each 

 time it is enacted, at a greater distance from the young or eggs. 2 To 

 complete the imposture, the Arctic-skua often adds "a low, piteous 

 moan." 3 When it considers the ruse has succeeded, it suddenly re- 

 covers its health and its spirits and flies away with a taunting cry, 

 or what must sound so to the ears of the deceived. Should there be 

 water near by, one of the pair will sometimes beat along through the 

 shallows, or sit on the surface and strike the water with its wings. 4 



I have not found it recorded that any other species of Laridce 

 Gull, Tern, or Skua has been seen to adopt the device of feigning 

 disablement, with the exception of Button's skua (p. 228). In the 

 case of Terns this is intelligible, as, owing to their habit of striking 

 with the beak, they must prove more formidable to quadrupeds than 

 Skuas. They have, in addition, acquired the habit of combined 



1 Zoologist, 1880, 92 (H. Saunders). 



1 The species will feign both before and after the eggs are hatched. Cf Evans and Buckley, 

 fauna of the Shetlands, p. 196. 



3 Ornithologist, 1896-7, p. 173 (R. Godfrey). * Ibid., p. 



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