40 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



ORDER LONGIPENNES. LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS. 

 FAMILY STERCORARIID^E. SKUAS AND JAEGERS. 



GENUS STERCORARIUS BRISSON. 

 STERCORARIUS POMARINUS (TEMM.). 



1 2. Pomarine Jaeger, (36) 



Middle tail feathers finally projecting about four inches, broad to the tip. 

 Length, about 20 inches; wing, 14; bill, 1^-lf; tarsus, about 2. Adult: 

 Back, wings, tail, crissum and lower belly, brownish-black ; below from bill to 

 belly, and neck all round, pure white, excepting acuminate feathers of sides of 

 neck, which are pale yellow ; quills, whitish basally, their shafts largely white ; 

 tarsi above, blue ; below, with the toes and webs, black. Not quite adult : As 

 before, but breast with dark spots, sides of the body with dark bars, blackish 

 of lower belly interrupted; feet, black. Younger: Whole under parts, with 

 upper wings and tail coverts, variously marked with white and dark ; feet, 

 blotched with yellow. Young: Whole plumage transversely barred with dark 

 brown and rufous ; feet, mostly yellow. Dusky stage (coming next after the 

 barred plumage just given ?) ; fuliginous, unicolor ; blackish-brown all over, 

 quite black on the head, rather sooty-brown on the belly ; sides of the neck 

 slightly shaded with yellow. 



HAB. Seas and inland waters of northern portion of the northern hemi- 

 sphere ; chiefly maritime. South in North America to the Great Lakes and 

 New Jersey. 



Nest composed of grass and moss placed on an elevated spot in a marsh. 



Eggs, two or three, grayish-olive, with brown spots. 



The Pomarine Skua is occasionally seen in company with the large 

 gulls, which spend a short time during the fall around the west end 

 of Lake Ontario, following the fishing boats and picking up the 

 loose fish that are shaken out of the nets. It is spoken of by the 

 fishermen as a bird of a most overbearing, tyrannical disposition, one 

 which they would gladly punish, but on these trying trips all hands 

 are occupied with matters of too much importance to think of shoot- 

 ing gulls. 



The home of this species is in the far north. Mr. Nelson says, in 

 the " Birds of Alaska " : " They are abundant in spring off the mouth 

 of the Yukon. Along both shores of the Arctic to the north they 

 are very numerous, and to a great extent replace the other two 

 species. 



" They are especially common along the border of the ice-pack and 

 about the whaling fleet, where they fare abundantly. 



"The peculiar twirl in the. long tail feathers of this species renders 

 it conspicuous and easily identified as far away as it can be seen." 



