POMEEINE SKUA. 115 



Rev. Dr. Thackeray, of King's College, Cambridge, is stated 

 by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns to have been shot near Cambridge. 

 Two at Hastings, in Sussex, in the early part of October, 

 1851. In Yorkshire they have sometimes occurred near 

 Scarborough and along the coast in considerable numbers, that 

 is, young birds, but their visits are very uncertain; three 

 were obtained there by W. H. Rudston Read, Esq., in October, 

 1831. One has been shot near York. 



In the year 1837 many were on sale in the London markets, 

 and eight or ten of them had been caught alive. Two were 

 captured in 1831 in Devonshire; others have been taken on 

 the Suffolk coast. One was shot in Hackney Marshes, near 

 London. 



In Scotland, Sir William Jardine has noticed them in the 

 Firth of Forth, and several as high up as Newhaven. 



In Ireland they are of occasional occurrence. 



They are seen also in the Hebrides. In Orkney one was 

 obtained in, I believe, the year 1832. 



They advance southwards in the autumn, and return towards 

 spring. 



This bird, like the others, lives a life of rapine, and thrives 

 on robbery, paying no regard to the principles of 'meum' 

 and 'tuum,' but, guided solely by self-interest, avails itself of 

 the labours of others, and plunders them without scruple of 

 their hardly-earned food, which it thus makes its own. It is 

 pugnacious and formidable in the same way, though not in the 

 same degree, as the other species. Only a few are seen together, 

 except in the breeding-season. 



Its flight, says Sir William Jardine, is very swift and rapid, 

 as befits one that is of so piratical a character. 



This Skua Gull builds by the margin of lakes in marshy 

 places, as well as in more rocky ones. 



The nest is composed of different grasses and moss. 



The eggs are two or three in number, and of a yellowish 

 grey colour, spotted with blackish brown. 



Male; bill, dark greenish grey, black at the tip, and bluish 

 at the base, the inside of the mouth orange red; iris, dark 

 brown. Head on the crown, and back, neck on the back, 

 and nape, deep blackish brown, with a slight tinge of grey, 

 the neck on the sides yellowish. Chin, throat, and breast, 

 white, the last-named with a collar of greyish brown spots, 

 and marked on the upper part and sides with yellowish and 

 greyish brown. Back, dark purple brown. 



