516 



NATATORES, CATARACTES. 



SKUA. 



General 

 descrip- 

 tion. 

 Male bird. 



Female. 



thers of these birds have a very strong smell, not unlike that 

 peculiar to the Petrels, to which genus, as I have before re- 

 marked, they shew much affinity *. 



PLATE 100. represents the Common Skua in about four- 

 fifths of the natural size. 



Head, cheeks, and region of the eyes, deep yellowish- 

 brown. Neck having the feathers wiry and pointed; 

 and, together with the under plumage, of a deep 

 brownish-grey, or clove-brown, marbled and tinged 

 with reddish-brown. The first quill having its outer 

 web and tip blackish-brown ; the rest the same, on the 

 tips only, the basal part being white ; shafts of all of 

 them white, and strong. Upper plumage dark reddish- 

 brown, with lighter -coloured oblong spots. Tail of 

 twelve feathers; its basal half white, the remainder 

 deep brown ; rounded, with the two middle feathers a 

 little exceeding the rest in length. Bill brownish-black, 

 with the soft corneous part slightly elevated above the 

 hooked tip. Lower mandible grooved, and forming an 

 angle at the symphasis. Orbits black; irides deep 

 hazel-brown. Legs rather strong, and covered with 

 large prominent black scales. Claws black, strong, 

 hooked, and grooved beneath. 



The Female resembles the Male bird both in colour and 

 size ; and there appears to be but little variation in the 

 changes of plumage from the Young to the Adult 

 state. 



* Mr NEILL has now (1832) in his possession a Skua, that was brought 

 to him as a nestling from Rona's Hill in summer 1820, when the gentle- 

 men engaged in the Government Trigonometrical Survey were encamped 

 on that mountain. It likes herring, which it swallows whole, but prefers 

 a piece of very fat boiled mutton ; it is also fond of soft cheese. When it 

 cries, it opens its mouth to the full gape, and the scream it utters sounds 

 somewhat like skuL It moults but once a-year. When irritated, or pre. 

 paring to attack, it raises the neck-feathers in the manner of a game-ccck. 



