514 THE SKUAS. 



The Common Skua (Stor Labbe, or Great Labbe, Sw. ; 

 Lestris Cataractes, Temm.) was never observed in our 

 Skargard, by either M. von Wright or ourselves. Nilsson 

 says it seldom appears on the Scandinavian coasts ; and, so 

 far as he is aware, only on those of northern Norway. 

 According to Danish naturalists, it has occasionally been 

 killed during the winter time in the Duchies of Schleswig 

 and Holstein. 



This powerful, courageous, and daring bird represents the 

 predatory birds amongst water-fowl. It not only furiously 

 pursues gulls and other birds, and compels them to drop the fish 

 they have captured (hence its designation, in common with 

 other skuas, of Parasitic Gull), but actually preys upon them. 

 It has been known with a single blow of its beak, so we are 

 told, to split open the head of gulls, guillemots, and the like ; 

 and after rending them to pieces with its crooked talons, to 

 devour them piecemeal ; as also to tear out the eyes of lambs. 



It breeds in colonies, at times consisting of a hundred pair 

 or more, and lays from one to two olive-green, or reddish- 

 brown eggs, marked with larger and smaller brown and grey 

 spots. In length the eggs are two inches and five-eights, 

 and in thickness two inches. No other birds, as it is 

 asserted, breed in its vicinity. 



It defends its young with great courage. " When one 

 approaches its nest," says Pontoppidan, " they are not afraid 

 to lay hold with the beak, and give hard blows with their 

 wings. The fowlers, therefore, are sometimes forced to make 

 use of knives to defend themselves, against which these birds 

 fly, and are killed." 



The Pomarine Skua (Bred-stjertad Labbe, or Broad-tailed 

 Labbe, Sw. ; L. Pomarinus, Temm.). This bird, as with 



