PLATE II 

 RICHARDSON'S SKUA. Stercorarius crepidatits 



June \f)th, 1897. I photographed this nest on the top of a small hillock on 

 the west of Unst, Shetland. One young bird was hatched, and the other was 

 doing his best to get out of his prison. The hole in the egg and the 

 tips of the young bird's bill protruding can be quite distinctly seen in the 

 Plate. 



Small bits of fish were brought to the young ones by their parents, who 

 disgorged them on the sides of the nest and fed the young birds with them. 



Close to this nest I found a dropped egg of this species ; it was pale 

 bluish green, in ground-colour very nearly white, and had one or two very 

 faint scrawlings of a pale reddish brown, and a few small grey underlying 

 markings on it. It was quite fresh, and not addled as I had expected. The 

 young in down are very difficult to find ; they exactly resemble the peat in 

 colour, and most of the moor was covered with little lumps scattered about, 

 so that the birds crouching down in the heather were quite indistinguishable 

 from one of these pieces of peat. 



VOL. III. B 



