RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 613 



" When the female left her nest, we observed her en- 

 deavouring to decoy us away, by pretending to be lame, 

 and tumbling about as if her wing were broken ; and it 

 was this circumstance that led us to look more attentively." 

 In Shetland this species breeds on the islands of Noss, 

 Unst, and Foula, and their various breeding-stations have 

 been visited Mr. Drosier, Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Hewitson. 

 Here these birds seem to breed in society, from fifty to 

 sixty being met with at the same place. The eggs are 

 usually but two in number, olive-brown in colour, spotted 

 with dark brown ; the length two inches four lines, by 

 one inch and eight lines in breadth. As the young were 

 already hatched, Mr. Drosier observes, I had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing them, several were discovered con- 

 cealed in the long grass ; and, although many of them 

 were only covered with down, still the blue legs and 

 black toes were very distinct. As the season advanced, 

 some that had not lost the down off their heads were 

 of a beautiful light brownish colour, distinctly barred and 

 spotted with black ; and in others, as they advanced in 

 growth, the brown colour was gradually disappearing, until, 

 in many specimens, only a very few brown marks were 

 discernible and the middle tail-feathers began to elon- 

 gate. 



In Norway Mr. Hewitson says, these birds breed most 

 commonly apart from each other, each pair taking pos- 

 session of its separate island, upon the highest point of 

 nearly all of which they are constantly to be seen perched, 

 and upon it they usually lay their eggs ; sometimes, how- 

 ever, choosing the lower grounds. Here, also, they are 

 the persecutors of the other species of sea-fowl, even to 

 sucking their eggs whenever their owners left them un- 

 covered. This species is found over the seas and coasts 

 of the North of Europe and North America, but from the 



