538 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



STERCORARIUS POMARINUS. Temminck. 

 The Pomarine Skua. 



Lestrispomarinus, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 315. Aud. Birds Am., VII. (1844) 



186. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Adult. Front, crown of the head, back, wings, and tail, blackish-brown; sides 

 and back part of the neck bright-yellow ; throat and entire under plumage white, 

 with a band of brown spots extending across the upper part of the breast ; sides 

 and lower tail coverts barred with brown ; shafts of quills and tail feathers white ; 

 bill greenish-olive, black at the tip; legs and feet black; the middle tail feathers 

 extend beyond the others for about two inches ; they are rounded at the end, and of 

 a uniform breadth throughout. 



Young birds have the plumage of the upper parts blackish-brown ; of the lower, 

 grayish-brown, with the feathers of the abdomen and lower tail coverts margined 

 with dull-ferruginous ; tarsi and base of the toes and webs yellow. 



Length, twenty inches ; wing, fourteen ; tail, eight to nine ; bill, one and three- 

 quarters ; tarsus, two inches. 



THIS species is not uncommon on our north-east coast in 

 the autumn and winter months. " It subsists on putrid 

 and other animal substances thrown up by the sea, and 

 also on fish and other matters which the Gulls disgorge 

 when pursued by it. It also devours the eggs of sea-birds." 

 It breeds in the Hudson's Bay country and other northern 

 localities ; nesting " in elevated spots in the marshes, or 

 upon rocks ; making a coarsely interlaced nest of the sur- 

 rounding moss and herbage ; laying two or three very 

 pointed eggs, of a grayish-olive, marked with a small num- 

 ber of blackish spots." NUTTALL. 



STERCORARIUS PARASITICUS. Temminck. 

 The Arctic Skua. 



Lartu parasiticus, Linnseus. Syst. Nat., I. (1756) 226. 

 Stercorarius parasiticus, Temminck. Man. d'Orn., II. (1820) 796. 

 Lestris Michardsonii, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 319. Aud. Birds Am., VII. 

 (1844) 190. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Adult. Upper part of the head blackish-brown; nape and sides of the neck 

 yellowish -white; remainder of upper plumage blackish -brown; wings and tail 

 darker; shafts of the primaries white; under plumage white; bill bluish at the base, 

 black at the point; tarsi and feet black; the central tail feathers extend beyond the 



