COMMON SKUA. 493 



like a storm demon, hovering at times in the dark cloud, and 

 presiding over the troubled sea, their very presence forming an 

 essential element in the picture. Such is their life ! 



THE COMMON SKUA. 

 LESTRIS CATARACTES. 



THE fact of the breeding haunts of this skua being strictly con- 

 fined to the Shetland Islands, has of late years led to so much 

 destructive intrusion by collectors that it is now only by the most 

 careful protection that the birds are enabled to maintain a footing 

 there. Thirty years ago there were three separate nesting locali- 

 ties, viz., the outlying islands of Foula and Uist, and Rona's hill 

 on the main island. The last-named haunt is now entirely deserted, 

 and in the two others the number of skuas which yearly resort 

 thither for nesting purposes is comparatively small. From these 

 haunts a few usually find their way southwards along the coasts 

 of the eastern counties ; but the bird is of rare occurrence in the 

 west. I have not indeed seen more than three or four examples 

 during the last twenty years : one was obtained on Loch Nell, near 

 Oban, in the autumn of 1867, and another was found alive in 

 a corn-field near Aberfoyle, on the banks of the Forth, in 

 September, 1862. 



During the breeding season the Common Skua becomes quite 

 fearless, attacking any intruder in its haunts with so much spirit 

 as occasionally to drive both man and dogs off the ground. Its 

 habits at other seasons can seldom be observed, as it does not often 

 come near the shore. I have at times recognised its bulky figure 

 some distance out at sea on the east coast; and Mr R. Scot- 

 Skirving has informed me that he shot one some years ago on the 

 Haddington shire coast after it had struck down a herring gull, 

 and while it was in the act of worrying it like a dog. 



Interesting details regarding its nesting habits have been pub- 

 lished by Captain Vetch in the fourth volume of the Wernerian 

 Society's memoirs, and also by Mr Robert Dunn, in his Ornitho- 

 logist's Guide to the Orkney and Shetland Islands, but as these 

 have already appeared in various other works it is unnecessary to 

 repeat them here. The following account, however, from Bullock's 

 Guide to his museum relating to the personal adventures of that 



