358 BRITISH BIRDS. 



STERCORARIUS BUFFONI. 



BUFFON'S SKUA. 



(PLATE 55.) 



Stercorarius longicaudus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 155 (1760) ; Vieill. N. Diet. cPHist. Nat. 

 xxxii. p. 157 (1819). 



Larus parasiticus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 226 (1766, partim). 



Catharacta parasitica (Linn.), Faber, Faun. Qrcenl. p. 103 (1780). 



Lestris parasiticus (Linn.), Illiger, Prodr. p. 273 (1811). 



Lestris buffoni, Boie, Isis, 1822, pp. 562, 874 ; et auctorum plurimomm Bona- 

 parte, Kaup, Lesson, Schinz, Schlegel, Middendorff, (Lawrence), (Dull 8f Ban- 

 nister), (Coues), (Irby), &c. 



Lestris lessoni, Degl. Mem. Ac. R. Lille, p. 108 (1838). 



Stercorarius longicaudatus, De Selys-Lonych. Faun. Belg. p. 156 (1842). 



Lestris longicaudatus (De Selys-Longch.) , Thomp, Birds Ireland, iii. p. 399 (1851). 



Stercorarius buffoni (Boie), Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1863, p. 136. 



Lestris brissoni, Boie, fide Degl. Gerbc, Orn. Eur. ii. p. 400 (1867). 



Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.), Saunders, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 330. 



Buffon's Skua is a somewhat rare visitor on migration to the British 

 Islands. It occurs most frequently as an accidental straggler to the 

 coasts of Scotland and the east coast of England, as far south as Yorkshire. 

 South of this limit its occurrence is even more accidental ; whilst the 

 west coast of England is rarely visited at all. In Ireland it has been 

 obtained on migration, principally on the north and east coasts. It is 

 sometimes driven inland by storms. The statements that this bird has 

 bred in the Hebrides, in Caithness, and in the Orkneys are founded upon 

 very meagre and entirely insufficient evidence. 



The range of Buffon's Skua is, during the breeding-season, more northerly 

 than that of Richardson's Skua, and is confined to the Arctic regions of 

 both hemispheres. The only locality where it is known to breed south of 

 lat. 68 is above the limit of forest-growth, on the Dovrefjeld, in lat. 62^. 

 It is not known to cross the continent on migration, but appears to follow 

 the coast-line as far south as Gibraltar, wandering in the Mediterranean 

 as far east as Italy. It has not been observed in the Pacific Ocean south 

 of Alaska, except on the Pribylov and Kurile Islands, but on the Atlantic 

 coast of America it has been known to occur as far south as New York. 

 It has no nearer ally than Richardson's Skua. 



Buffon's Skua is more arctic in its habits than the so-called Arctic or 

 Richardson's Skua. The tundra, which normally looks like an English 

 flower-garden run wild, gay with many-coloured blossoms, luxuriant with 



