222 THE SKUAS 



above. The larger bird flinched and dived, often alighting and 

 watching for an opportunity to escape. On the wing an attack from 

 the side was warded off by a half-closed wing, and if from above, both 

 wings were raised above the back. One bird, driven to alight on the 

 river, thrust its head under water at each swoop of its assailant, and 

 exhibited every sign of terror. 1 Many of Mcllhenny's eggs were 

 taken between June 18 and 21, in Alaska, but unfortunately he 

 appears to have published no account of his expedition up to the 

 present time. 



The only other information as to the breeding of this species 

 is that given by Herren Koren and Schaanning to Professor 

 Newton. 2 They were quartered at Pomorskaja Bay, Mataschkin-schar, 

 Novaya Zemlya, during the summer of 1903, a great lemming year, 

 and found this skua, as well as the little-stint, breeding in a large 

 grassy marsh, beset with dry bare ridges. The skuas were extra- 

 ordinarily shy and wary, the female leaving the nest at a dis- 

 tance of 2000 metres when approached. Unlike the other species 

 of this genus, they never attack intruders, sweeping round in great 

 circles and alighting here and there in the marsh. The eggs were 

 thus extraordinarily hard to find, and required very long and patient 

 watching. They were laid without any lining on hillocks, often moist, 

 in the wettest part of the marsh, in some cases so that the hillock 

 was surrounded on all sides by water. The nests were some distance 

 apart, and the eggs appear to have been laid between June 2G 

 and July 2, but two nests found on July 12 and 14 with a single egg 

 in each were probably second layings. 



There is little doubt that sooner or later this bird will be found 

 nesting in many localities where at present it is only known to occur 

 in summer, such as the Murman coast and some of the North 

 Russian islands, but its undemonstrative and solitary habits, so 

 opposed to those of the rest of this family, have so far saved its nests 



1 Nelson, Report upon Natural History Collections made in A laska, 1877-81, p. 46. 

 1 See Ootheca Wolleyana, ii. p. 348. 



