BUFFON'S SKUA. 617 



which it appears to have been erroneously mixed up, and 

 with which its measurements do not coincide. 



The Arctic bird from Hudson's Bay, figured by Edwards, 

 in his Natural History, plate 1 48, described as having the 

 wing only twelve inches long when closed, the middle tail- 

 feathers thirteen inches long, and the middle toe but one 

 inch and a half in length, is, I think, without doubt, from 

 these particulars, as well as the peculiar form of the tail- 

 feathers, an adult male of Buffon's Skua ; but Edwards 1 

 plate 149, representing a female brought by Mr. Tsham 

 from the same locality, and said to exceed it a little, is a 

 younger bird, and probably belongs to the species last 

 described, namely, Dr. Richardson's Skua, both species 

 being known to inhabit North America. An adult speci- 

 men killed in this country is preserved in the British 

 Museum ; and the Zoological Society, in 1 832, received this 

 species from Orkney, with skins of the three other British 

 species of this genus, and of the Ivory Gull. Young birds 

 of Buffon's Skua in the brown plumage of their first autumn 

 have been killed in the vicinity of the Tyne, and on the 

 coast of Durham, in the month of September; and Mr. 

 John Hancock, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, obtained a 

 mature individual that was shot near Whitburn, in the 

 county of Durham, at the end of October, 1837. 



M. de Selys Longchamps says, this species, has been 

 obtained on the coast of Dunkirk and Picardy. 



Buffon's Skua visits Norway and Iceland. Dr. Richard- 

 son says, " It inhabits the Arctic sea-coasts of America 

 and Europe in the summer, migrating to the more tem- 

 perate parts in winter. Numerous specimens were brought 

 home by the late expeditions from Melville Peninsula, the 

 North Georgian Islands, Baffin's Bay, and Spitzbergen. 

 It resembles the Lestris pomerina in its manners." The 



