666 IARID.E. 



as the parent birds at once attack any intruder upon their 

 domain with fierce and repeated swoops. When handling the 

 nestling, the Editor found their assaults were unremitting : 

 first one bird and then the other wheeling short, and coming 

 down at full speed, almost skimming the ground. At about 

 fifteen yards' distance, the strong clawed feet are lowered and 

 held stiffly out, producing for the moment a very ungainly 

 appearance, and it seems as if the bird would strike the 

 observer full in the centre of the body, but on quickly raising 

 the hand or stick, the bird rises also, the whirr and vibration 

 of its pinions being distinctly heard and felt. Its ordinary 

 flight is soaring and stately. On leaving the territory of one 

 pair, the attack is taken up by another, and so on ; for the 

 Great Skuas do not nest in close proximity. In fearlessness 

 this fine bird is unrivalled ; it has been seen to beat off the 

 Sea Eagle, and no Kaven stands a chance against it. For 

 this reason the proprietors of the land protect it ; Major 

 Feilden says that in the Faeroes they also do so on account 

 of the estimation in which the young are held for food ; but 

 the fishermen shoot the old birds for the sake of the bill (for 

 the neb-toll), feathers, and flesh, the latter making excellent 

 fishing bait. The stomachs of a pair which were shot, were 

 full of the flesh of the Kittiwake, and the castings consisted 

 of the bones and feathers of that small Gull. Heysham has 

 noticed an adult female on the coast of Cumberland, which 

 allowed herself to be seized while she was in the act of killing 

 a Herring Gull. It also feeds on fish offal, and the Editor 

 found by the side of a nestling some disgorged but otherwise 

 uninjured herrings of large size. 



In the adult of this species the bill and its cere are 

 black ; irides dark brown ; the whole of the head and neck 

 dark umber-brown, slightly varied by streaks of reddish- 

 brown ; back, wings, and tail-coverts dark brown, streaked 

 with pale reddish-brown ; wing-primaries blackish-brown, 

 white at the base, forming a conspicuous band ; tail- 

 feathers dark brown, the two middle ones a little longer 

 than the others; chin, throat, neck in front, breast, and 

 under surface of the body, uniform clove-brown ; under 



