POMATORHINE SKUA. 671 



the Curlew Sandpiper, is uncorroborated, and is opposed 

 to what we know of the breeding habits of this and other 

 species of Skuas. Judging from the numbers observed on 

 migration, the Pomatorhine Skua must have many other 

 breeding-places within the Arctic circle, but those already 

 mentioned are the only ones which can as yet be indicated 

 with certainty. 



Passing along the coasts of Western Europe on its regular 

 migrations, this Skua is an occasional straggler to the Baltic, 

 the interior of the Continent, the Mediterranean as far as 

 Sicily and Malta, and the Bosphorus ; and its course can be 

 traced down the west coast of Africa as far as Walvisch Bay, 

 in 23 S. lat. The late Major Tickell obtained an immature 

 specimen at Moulmein, on the coast of Tenasserim, and a 

 bird of the year was procured by Mr. Cockerell oif Cape 

 York, the northern extremity of Australia. Both adult and 

 young birds have been recorded from Japan ; also from the 

 Aleutian Islands ; and on the west coast of America two 

 examples were obtained in Callao Bay, Peru, by Capt. 

 A. H. Markham, R.N., in December, 1881 (P, Z. S. 1882, 

 p. 527). On the eastern side of North America its 

 migrations extend to Pennsylvania, and stragglers have 

 visited the elevated inland lakes of Mexico. 



The Pomatorhine . Skua is said by Von Middendorff to 

 deposit two eggs in a mere depression of the moss on the 

 tundras of the Taimyr in the month of July. One of 

 the eggs taken by him is figured in his ' Sibirische Beise,' 

 pi. xxiv. fig. i., and a better illustration is given by Prof. 

 Newton (P. Z. S. 1861, pi. xxxix. fig. 3), from which it 

 would appear that the colour is of an olive-brown with darker 

 blotches, and the measurements about 2-45 by 1*7 in. Like 

 the rest of the group, this Skua plunders the Terns and 

 Gulls ; devours any animal matter cast up by the sea, and 

 the ' krang ' of seals and whales ; and also preys freely upon 

 lemmings. Von Heuglin describes its call-note as a harsh 

 crah ; and he says that he frequently observed it swimming 

 on the water. 



The adult bird has the bill dark horn-colour, black at the 



