328 



smooth rivers down to the tideway, not in torrents nor, so far as 

 is known, on the sea, though occasionally a few birds may haunt 

 large open tanks, and even jheels. They are usually found 

 in the morning and evening flying, often in scattered flocks, rather 

 slowly close to the water, now and then dipping their bills in the 

 stream, as shown in the vignette on p. 296. During the day the 

 flocks generally rest on sandbanks. They certainly catch fish at 

 times ; I once found a fish in the stomach of a Skimmer on the 

 Nerbudda, and others have done the same, but as a rule nothing 

 but a yellowish oily fluid is found, apd the use of the very peculiar 

 beak that this bird possesses is still unknown. This species breeds 

 on sandbanks in rivers about March and April, and lays four eggs 

 in a small depression in the sand. The eggs vary in tint, pale buft' 

 or stone-colour, greenish or greyish white, blotched and streaked 

 with dark brown and pale inkv purple, and they measure about 

 1-63 by 1-18. 



Family STEECORARIID^]. 



The Skuas are an interesting group of Gull-like birds that live 

 mainly by robbing Gulls, Terns, and Petrels of their food. Bold, 

 active, and armed with a strong bill and sharp claws, a Skua 

 pounces on other sea-birds and forces them to drop any fish or 

 other food they may have secured, and this food is seized by the 

 robber often before it reaches the water. At times Skuas feed on 

 eggs, on young or sickly birds, or on small mammals. They are 

 dark-coloured birds, and breed in high latitudes, laying as a rule 

 two olive eggs sported with brown. 



The bill somewhat resembles that of Gulls in shape, but is con- 

 siderably broader at the base ; the culrnen is greatly curved at the 

 tip, and the upper mandible bent over the end of the lower; but 

 there is a well-developed horny cere extending more than half the 

 length of the bill, and with the anterior part of its lower border 

 overhanging the nostrils. The lower mandible is straight, and the 

 angle very near the end. The claws are greatly curved and very 

 sharp, the anterior toes long and fully webbed, hind toe small, 

 and the tarsus strong and shielded in front. Wings long and 

 pointed, 1st long quill longest; tail long and rounded, with the 

 two middle feathers projecting beyond the others, sometimes for 

 several inches. Skuas are distinguished from Gulls by having 

 well-developed functional caeca, and by having only one notch on 

 each side of the posterior margin of the sternum. 



The Skuas have been divided into two genera on account of 

 slight differences in the bill and tail ; but the oulv two species 

 satisfactorily identified as occurring within Indian limits belong to 

 the same genus. 



