, 



356 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



same year another was sent to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 in the flesh, from Blakeney. In the last week of Oc- 

 tober, 1874, after a very severe gale off Yarmouth, many 

 skuas were brought in by the fishing boats. One game- 

 dealer there, says Mr. Stevenson, had thirty at one time ; 

 they were nearly all pomatorhines, but amongst them 

 was one adult arctic skua. Another, an immature bird, 

 was shot at Blakeney, on 18th September, 1877. This 

 brings us to the great skua year of 1879, of which I have 

 spoken somewhat at length in the previous article. I 

 do not know the number of arctic skuas which were 

 obtained, but it was very small (Mr. Stevenson men- 

 tions only three), and I think there were even fewer than 

 of the next species. Others occurred in October, 1881, 

 and all four species of skua were met with at various 

 dates in that month. Mr. Back had a specimen killed 

 near Yarmouth, in October, 1883. 



It will be seen from the foregoing rather full list of 

 occurrences that the arctic skua is by no means a rare 

 bird on our coast ; indeed, I have no doubt, though it 

 never assembles in such large numbers as are occa- 

 sionally observed of the pomatorhine skua, that it is a 

 constant attendant upon the herring-boats in autumn, 

 where it takes its toll of the various smaller gulls and 

 terns which follow the fleet to feed on the offal and 

 broken fish which are so abundant, but it rarely shows 

 itself on the shore or comes into the harbours except 

 under stress of weather, and then not in large numbers. 

 I have frequently seen a" pair or two under such cir- 

 cumstances years ago beating to windward in Lynn 

 harbour; where Mr. Gurney tells me one of these 

 birds had the temerity to attack a great black-backed 

 gull, which turned and knocked it over ; a man, 

 who witnessed the attack, picked it up and found that 

 it had lost one eye ; he, however, took it home and it 

 fed readily. Mr. F. J. Cresswell purchased the skua 

 and sent it to the Zoological Gardens.* Mr. Booth says 



* "Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1868, p. 651. In the 8th edition of the 

 " List of Vertebrated Animals, in the Zoological Gardens," pub- 

 lished in 1883 (p. 533), this bird is, however, erroneously entered 

 as a " common," i.e., great skua, 8* catarrhactes, 



