THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 215 



found to contain bones and feathers, identified in some cases as those 

 of the kittiwake. According to Saxby, the Arctic species will chase and 

 kill the smaller Waders, ringed plovers, and the like when it cannot 

 get fish. It is possible it may sometimes chase land birds, not to kill, 

 but to make them disgorge. Both the great and Arctic-skuas devour 

 the eggs and young of other species. In Iceland the latter was seen 

 to rob systematically the nests of Ducks, Waders, and even of Terns. Its 

 castings, found on the hillocks where it reposed to digest, consisted 

 of little but broken egg-shells, bones, and balls of feathers or down. 1 

 In Spitsbergen the nests of the eider-ducks were despoiled in the 

 same way ; their eggs were taken almost as soon as their owners left 

 the nest. 2 Both species again will feed like Gulls on the flats laid 

 bare by the receding tide, eating anything they can find, molluscs, 

 crustaceans, and carrion. The Arctic has been seen inland picking 

 up worms, insects, or mice in the fields. One was shot in Ireland 

 when following the plough. 3 



In winter both species move southward, and are usually to be 

 found out at sea not far from their favourite source of supplies a 

 flock of sea-birds. 



THE POMATORHINE-SKUA 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



To judge merely from the records of birds actually seen or shot 

 on our coasts, one would imagine that it is only exceptionally that this 

 species visits us in any numbers. It is true that almost every winter 

 a few specimens are obtained in some part or other of the British 

 Isles, but their numbers are few indeed compared with those which 

 were recorded in the autumns of 1879 and 1880. But, as in the case 

 of the little-auk, it seems probable that under normal weather 



1 Ornith. Monatsschrift, 1896, p. 339 (Riemschneider), quoted in Naumann, Vogel Alittel- 

 europas, xi. 325. 



2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, loc. cit. (Kolthoff). 3 Ussher and Warren, Birds of Ireland, p. 353. 



