THE POMATORHINE SKUA. "7 



individuals spend the whole winter in the more southern parts of Britain. In 

 Ireland fewer specimens have been obtained. The bird is an Arctic species, and 

 breeds round all the bare sub-polar lands north of 70, making its appearance in 

 its nesting haunts in the month of May from its southern retreats. The limit of 

 its northern breeding range is unknown. In winter it migrates southward, across 

 the equator even as far as Australia ; down the coasts of Africa ; and along the 

 American shores, where, on its western side, it reaches as far as " Callao Bay, in 

 Peru" (Saunders). 



This species is smaller than the Great Skua ; both sexes are alike, and in 

 breeding plumage they have the top and sides of the head brownish-black ; the 

 long pointed feathers of the neck yellowish-white ; on the lower neck the feathers 

 are blackish- brown, tipped with grey ; lower down they are white crossed by two 

 bars of brownish-grey ; back, wings, and tail brownish-black ; primaries and tail 

 feathers umber-brown, with white on the inner web near the base ; shafts whitish ; 

 throat yellowish-white ; under side white ; the breast with a band of brownish-black 

 bars ; the sides, the abdomen and under tail-coverts barred with the same, the 

 dark colour predominating over the white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 uniform brownish-grey ; bill bluish-grey, tinged with green, its tip corneous ; legs 

 and feet reddish-black. Length 20^-21 inches; wing 14-141; tail 5-5^, and with 

 the long feathers it may reach 9 ; tarsus 2 ; middle toe, with its claw, 2. 



The Pomatorhine Skua breeds in Greenland and, among other places, on the 

 barren tundras of the River Taimyr, where Middendorff found its eggs, in July, 

 lying on the moor without any nest. The eggs are similar to, but smaller and 

 lighter than, those of the Great Skua. They vary from 2$-2i inches in length, 

 by if-it; they are "indistinguishable from certain varieties of the eggs of 

 Richardson's Skua and the Common Gull" (Saunders). 



The young are covered with pale rusty-brown down. When fully fledged the 

 head and back of the neck are reddish- or greyish-brown, margined with pale brown ; 

 back dark brown, each feather margined with brownish-red ; tail-coverts barred 

 with black and reddish-buff; wing and tail quills brownish-black, with their bases 

 and inner webs and shafts white; under surface "varying from numerous bold 

 striations of brown and rufous, to an ashy-brown with faint striations, and again to 

 an almost uniform dull brown " (Saunders) ; tarsi, with hexagonal scales all round, 

 and blotched with blue and grey ; bill bluish-grey, tip black ; toes blackish. 

 According to Mr. Saunders, the more advanced but immature bird has the neck 

 yellowish, and the under parts, the flanks, upper and under tail-coverts barred 

 with black and white, and the under wing similarly mottled ; the central tail 

 feathers seldom project more than two inches, and they are not twisted at the 



VOL. VI T 



