THE GREAT SKUA. i'3 



slightly in size, and ma}' be larger than, or equal to, her mate. The feathers of the 

 neck are stiff and acuminate. The general colour of the bird's entire plumage is 

 deep uniber-brown ; the elongated neck feathers are streaked, those on the top 

 of the head tipped, with brownish-yellow ; the lower neck brownish-yellow ; on the 

 scapulars there is a pale area ; wings dark brown ; wing-coverts lighter ; primary 

 coverts and quills brownish-black, with their shafts white except towards the end ; 

 a large portion of the bases of the primaries of the same colour (which does not 

 extend to the outer web of the outer quill) forming a conspicuous alar patch, seen 

 on the under side when the bird is on the wing, as well as when it is at rest ; 

 inner secondaries brown, outer lighter ; tail coverts brown, with a reddish stripe ; 

 the tail feathers blackish-brown ; whole of the under surface reddish-brown, with 

 redder shaft-stripes on the throat and upper breast ; under wing-coverts dark 

 brown, washed with reddish-brown ; bill black ; cere greyish-blue ; legs and feet 

 black. Length 23 inches; wing 15^ to i6l; tail, whose middle feathers are longer 

 than the rest, 64 to 7 ; middle toe, with its claw, 3 ; tarsus 2!. 



The nest of the Great Skua is generally a hollow trodden in a heather bush, 

 or a bank of moss ; in which, as a rule, two eggs and sometimes three are laid. 

 The nests are not, however, made in such large colonies as is the case with most 

 of the Gulls a few pairs only breeding in proximity to each other. They are 

 generally to be observed in pairs together, each at a little distance from the next. 



Mr. Richard Barrington has given, in the " Zoologist," an interesting account 

 of his visit to this bird's breeding place in Foula. " We landed," he says, " on 

 Foula at midnight, on June 22nd last [1890], from the mainland of Shetland, from 

 which Foula is distant about eighteen miles. To the west of the island the cliffs 

 are bold and striking, and form a jagged outline, which, for imposing grandness, 

 is hardly to be surpassed. On the east and north-east the island is comparatively 

 low, with cliffs varying from fifty to hundred and fifty feet, but there is no strand 

 or stony beach anywhere, save where a mountain stream enters the ocean at a 

 little creek in the rocks, and this strip of beach is only ten yards across 



" Foula is about three miles long and two broad, and its highest point is the 

 Sneug, 1372 feet. The highest cliff is the Kame, 1220 feet 



"The island is not only bleak and exposed, but subject to sudden squalls of 

 exceptional violence from the steep face of the storm-swept Sneug, the home of 



the Great Skua, towards which we went With one or two exceptions the 



Great Skuas all breed on the southern face. The nest is merely a depression on 

 the surface. They seem to scratch a little at first, then smooth the place with 

 their breasts. In one or two cases some withered leaves of Eriophorum were round 

 the edge, apparently broken off because they were in the way. Having heard and 



