BICHARD SON'S SKUA. 119 



Yarmouth, in immature plumage, about the 24th. of October, 

 1844, and in 1847 four, two adult and two immature ones, 

 on different parts of the Norfolk coast. In Oxfordshire 

 several individuals have occurred, at different times, in the 

 neighbourhood of Weston-on-the-Green. One adult bird was 

 seen there on the 27th. of June, 1837. The Hon. T. L. 

 Powys has informed me of one of these Skuas, an immature 

 specimen having been obtained near Oxford. In Sussex, one 

 was shot near Brighton, on the 23rd. of January, 1851. In 

 Worcestershire, one on the Severn, near Worcester, about the 

 beginning of November, 1849; and one in Lancashire, the 

 same year, near Fleetwood, on the 20th. of August. In York- 

 shire, one was picked up in the town of Halifax, in the West- 

 Kiding. This species is noticed occasionally on the coast, 

 and sometimes in considerable numbers, namely, young birds 

 for the most part; so also in Durham, Hampshire, Devonshire, 

 and Lancashire. One at Battersea, near London, and four 

 at Kings bury, in Middlesex, in the autumn of the year 1842. 

 In the county of Northumberland Mr. Selby records the 

 occurrence of two at the Fern Islands, in the month of May. 



In Scotland Sir William Jardine observed this species in 

 Sutherlandshire, on the Firth of Durness, in the month of 

 June, 1834. He also states that it is frequently observed, 

 late in the autumn, in the Frith of Forth. 



In Ireland individuals have occurred, but rarely, as near 

 Belfast and Dublin; one in May, 1847. 



In Orkney two, in the plumage formerly described as a 

 different species, were shot in Sanday, in the winter of 1849-50; 

 one subsequently. These birds are very abundant in summer, 

 and breed in Hoy and several parts of the islands; as also 

 in like manner, as already mentioned, in the Hebrides and the 

 Shetland Islands. 



They are migratory, some of the young birds advancing 

 southwards in the autumn. They arrive in Shetland in May. 



When anxious for the safety of their nest or young, these 

 birds exhibit the greatest solicitude, flying, running, and 

 fluttering about with obvious care, or pretending to be lame, 

 and endeavouring to decoy intruders away. They appear to 

 do well in confinement. They are said to have combats 

 sometimes among themselves. 



The Arctic Skua is also amazingly swift and powerful on 

 the wing, a necessary qualification in such a pirate. Meyer 

 says that occasionally it Hies as slow, and that there is hardly 



