STEKCORARIUS. 273 



Stercorarius parasiticus. RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 



Larus parasiticus Linnteus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 136 : 

 Sweden. 



Stercorarius crepidatus ( Gmel.} ; B. O. L T . List, 1st ed. 1883, 

 p. 195 ; Sounders, Cat. Birds B. M. xxv. 1896, p. 327 ; id. 

 Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 691. 

 ParosZcfi=parasitic, from its habit. 



Distribution in the British Islands. A Summer Visitor 

 and a regular Bird of Passage in autumn, but scarce in spring. 

 It breeds commonly, in scattered colonies, on most of tbe 

 Shetland and on some of the Orkney Islands ; also on the 

 Outer Hebrides, and in small numbers on some of the Inner 

 Hebrides as well as in Caithness and Sutherland. In autumn 

 it is more numerous on the east coast of Great Britain and 

 west of Scotland, less so on the south and west coasts of 

 England and Wales, and in Ireland. 



General Distribution. The range of Richardson's Skua 

 is circumpolar ; it breeds in the arctic and subarctic 

 regions of both hemispheres to about 80 N. latitude, and 

 ranges southwards to about 55 N. latitude in Britain, 

 apparently to Turgai, western Siberia, and to the Com- 

 mander and Aleutian Islands. In winter it visits the coasts 

 of Europe, of Africa to the Cape, and of south-western Asia, 

 from the Persian Gulf to the Mekran and Sind coasts ; it 

 has occurred in Australia and New Zealand. In America it 

 ranges south to California on the Pacific, and to Barbados 

 and even Brazil on the Atlantic side. 



Stercorarius longicaudus, BUFFON'S SKUA. 



Stercorarius longicaudus Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 

 xxxii. 1819, p. 157 : Northern regions. 



Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.) ; B. O. U. List, 1st ed. 1883, 

 p. 195 ; Sounders, Cat. Birds B. M. xxv. 1896, p. 334 ; id. 

 Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 693. 



Longica ud us = long-tailed. 



