224 THE SKUAS 



BUFFON'S OR LONGTAILED-SKUA. 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



This species, the most beautiful and graceful of all the Skuas, 

 although occasionally recorded as occurring in some numbers on the 

 autumn migration, visits us much less frequently than the pomato- 

 rhine, although from the fact that its nearest breeding-grounds are on 

 the fells of Norway one would expect to meet with it on our eastern 

 coasts with tolerable frequency. During the great skua irruption 

 of October 1879 (which has already been described in the article on 

 the " Pomatorhine Skua"), no fewer than fifteen adults were captured 

 at Redcar, and others seen on October 14th and 15th, while at least 

 eleven others were taken in other parts of the county. In the autumn 

 of 1891 there was another invasion by this species, and this time 

 specimens were obtained not only on the east coast of Scotland, but 

 also in the Channel. The return migration in spring seems to avoid 

 our islands almost altogether, though there are a few records from 

 Ireland, and belated individuals have been obtained in Cumberland 

 as late as June 3, and in Cornwall on June 4. From the number 

 of specimens brought in by fishermen from the distant banks in the 

 North Sea, Mr. E. T. Booth inferred that the usual autumn migration 

 line of this species lies considerably to the eastward of the British 

 Isles, but Gatke's researches seem to show that it is only a scarce 

 visitor in small numbers to Heligoland. 



We are, however, better acquainted with the life-history of this 

 species than with that of the pomatorhine, principally owing to the 

 comparative ease with which the nest can be discovered. It is of 

 course piratic in its habits, though quite capable of finding food for 

 itself at times. During the breeding season there seems little doubt 

 that many individuals whose nesting-grounds lie at some distance from 



