680 



GA 



LARIDjE. 



LARID^E. 



STEBCORABIUS PAEASITICUS (Linnaeus*). 

 THE LONG-TAILED OK BUFFON'S SKUA. 



Lestris Buffonii. 



THIS smallest species of the genus Stercorarius, although 

 much more rare than the Arctic Skua, has occasionally been 

 taken in this country, generally in autumn. It is distinctly 

 circumpolar in its breeding-range, and although it has been 

 said to nest sporadically in Caithness and the Orkneys, 

 the evidence can hardly be considered conclusive. Mr. R. 

 Gray states that in the summer of 1863 he examined a pair 

 shot on the island of Wiay in the Hebrides, as they hovered 

 over a marsh where there were nests of the Arctic Skua, 



* Larus parasiticus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 226 (1766). The 

 Editor believes that he has shown (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 327) that the description 

 given by Linnaeus can only apply to this species, although the name was subse- 

 quently transferred, most unfortunately and improperly, to the Arctic Skua. 



