GU 



the cere reaches as far as the nostrils ; and the por- 

 tion to 'the front of these is very hard and strong, 

 resembling in shape the tip of the bill of a hawk or 

 eagle. It should seem that the cere has something 

 to do with the production of a bill of more than ordi- 

 nary strength 'and firmness of substance, at least all 

 bills which are furnished with regular ceres, have 

 those properties in a higher degree than those which 

 are not so furnished. 



The whole upper part of this bird is deep brown, 

 with dull rust colour on the margins of the feathers, 

 by means of which each feather is distinctly made out, 

 something similar to what is the case in birds of prey. 

 The colour on the under part is the same but lighter ; 

 and the head and throat are marked with streaks of 

 greyish ash. The tips of the secondary quills, and 

 the' bases and shafts of the tail-feathers, are white, 

 but the remainder of these feathers are deep brown. 

 The tarsi and toes are covered with black scales, 

 which are placed shield-wise rather than articulated ; 

 the claws are large and crooked, especially those on 

 the inner toes. 



These birds are natives of the high latitudes of 

 both hemispheres, though we believe the only part of 

 the south where they have been met with is on the 

 islands to the southward of America. In the north 

 they are pretty generally distributed, though they 

 are rarely seen to the southward of the Orkney 

 islands, and are not very common even there. They 

 are more abundant in Shetland, and still more so on 

 the coast of Norway, in the Faroe islands and in Ice- 

 land. Where they associate in numbers they commit 

 great depredations on the nests of the bank-building 

 birds, and are sometimes accused of attacking the 

 birds themselves. Indeed in Orkney and Shetland, 

 where they are called sea eagles, and various other 

 formidable names, they are accused of attacking lambs. 

 It may be that they attack those animals ; and they 

 no doubt feed very readily upon the dead carcases of 

 such as perish in the pastures ; but that a skua can 

 carry off any thing in its claws, strong and crooked 

 as they are, is impossible, because those claws have 

 nothing against which they can act, the hind one 

 being too small and feeble for this purpose ; and in 

 birds which carry their prey with the feet, the hind 

 toe and claw are always strong, and when the foot is 

 more exclusively a carrying than a killing foot, the 

 outer front toe is reversible. The tarsi and feet alto- 

 gether of the skua are too feeble for enabling it to 

 use its crooked claws in any very offensive manner ; 

 and the muscles with which the thighs and legs are 

 furnished are comparatively trifling, the strength of 

 the bird is in the wings and the neck ; and the most 

 obvious use of the crooked claws is that of enabling 

 it to hold on upon the oily and slippery carcases of 

 dead whales and other carrion, upon winch it feeds 

 voracious! y. 



We believe there is no well authenticated instance 

 of a skua attacking any large and living bird, or other 

 animal, for the purpose of making a meal of it ; and 

 indeed its bill is not adapted for cutting or tearing 

 recent flesh. Hence the most rational theory of its 

 economy in the north is that which regards^ it as a 

 protector of the flocks and not a destroyer. There is 

 no question that the eagles and falcons, and occasion- 

 ally the larger owls, of those remote islands prey upon 

 the young and the diseased of the sheep ; but if the 

 skuas take up their nesting place in the neighbour- 

 hood (and they are social in their breeding places), 



L L. 687 



those predatory birds dare not appear within some 

 distance. The skuas breed in the moor rather than 

 the marsh ; and some of them are on the alert at all 

 times, ready to give notice of the appearance of an 

 enemy. No sooner is the signal of danger given, 

 than it is answered by the sound of a hundred wings ; 

 and the skuas instantly surround the intruder, and 

 drive at him on all sides. Theirs is a warfare for 

 which birds of prey are not prepared ; and indeed 

 birds of prey are no soldiers : the skuas shoot them- 

 selves like javelins at the enemy, and from their 

 weight, the strength of their make, the firmness of 

 their bill, and the rapidity of their flight, a single 

 stroke taking effect would finish an eagle. Even man 

 himself does not invade the habitations of those birds 

 without danger, because they assail him as readily 

 as any other enemy ; and it is customary to guard 

 against them by a sharp-pointed stick, or one with an 

 iron spike rising above the head, upon which the 

 birds are said sometimes to descend and transfix 

 themselves. 



Though these birds assemble in considerable num- 

 bers upon the breeding grounds, they are understood 

 to be also always in pairs ; and when the young are 

 full grown, and begin to disperse themselves over the 

 ocean, it is understood that they also take their de- 

 parture in pairs. Not the skuas only, but also the 

 common gulls, and most sea birds which crowd to the 

 rocks, the marshes, and the moors during the breed- 

 ing time, disperse themselves over the sea toward the 

 close of summer, and many of them go to consider- 

 able distances. It has often been a matter of specu- 

 lation where or how they procure food on those long 

 marine journeys ; but there is, altogether independent 

 of the fishes, a harvest of the sea at that particular 

 season, and a harvest arising from the birds them- 

 selves ; so that at this season the birds so far imitate 

 their neighbours under the water, the fishes, that they 

 " enjoy themselves in eating one another," with only 

 this difference, that these fishes eat live fish, whereas 

 the birds eat dead birds. It will be recollected that 

 the whole year's brood of terns, petrels, and all other 

 long-winged birds, disperse themselves over the sea 

 at this season of the year, and that very many of 

 them do so before they have acquired the average 

 strength of their species. Multitudes of these be- 

 come exhausted, tumble into the water, die there, and 

 supply food for the rest ; and the common skua, 

 being" the most powerful and the most daring of the 

 sea birds, of course comes in for the lion's share. 



POMARINE SKUA (L. pomarinux). This species is 

 the next in size and power to the common skua, and 

 it is a more northerly, inhabitant. As a British bird 

 it is only a straggler ; but it straggles into the southern 

 parts of the country as well as the northern. In the 

 winter of 1831, a live specimen was sent to the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London from Devonshire, where it 

 was taken, very much exhausted, apparently with the 

 fatigue of a long journey. The upper parts of this 

 species are of a uniform deep brown ; the feathers of 

 the nape are long and pointed, like those on the 

 necks of the eagles, and they are bordered with a 

 bright yellow. The throat, the hind part of the neck 

 and the belly are white ; there is a large band of 

 brown spots on the breast, and similar spots on the 

 flanks and under tail-coverts ; the bill is of an olive 

 colour, with a black tip ; the irides are yellowish, and 

 the feet black. The length of the bird is about seven- 

 teen inches ; but the two middle feathers of the tail, 



