616 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



According to Yarrell, the eggs are are of a stone- 

 colour, spotted with ash-grey and two shades of 

 reddish brown. 



RICHARDSON'S SKUA, Lestris Richardsonii. All the 

 Skuas seem to make themselves particularly dis- 

 agreeable to the rest of the family to which they 

 belong, for the most part obtaining their food by 

 persecuting the other Gulls and Terns till they are 

 obliged to disgorge any prey they may have recently 

 taken, which the Skua immediately picks up and 

 appropriates. When watching the flocks of Kitti- 

 wakes fishing off Exmouth I have occasionally seen 

 this system of persecution carried out : a Pomarine 

 Skua will pick out a Kittiwake that has been in- 

 dulging rather freely in sprats, and follow him up : 

 no dodging of the Kittiwake amongst the crowd of 

 his companions will do ; the Skua sticks to him till 

 eventually he has to disgorge his sprats, which the 

 Skua immediately swallows. As this is the general 

 character of the Skuas, the term " Lestris," from the 

 Greek word AIKTT^, " a robber," especially " a sea 

 robber," is applied to these birds with more pro- 

 priety than is usual in ornithological classics. 



Of the four British Skuas I can only bring two 

 actually into Somersetshire, although both of the 

 others have been taken in the neighbouring counties 

 of Devon and Dorset, and Yarrell mentions one of 

 them, the Common Skua, as having been taken on 

 the Severn, but does not say in what part. The 



