494 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



indefatigable collector in Foula in 1812, has not, so far as I am 

 aware, been copied into any subsequent publication : " The prin- 

 cipal breeding place in Great Britain of the larger brown species, 

 called the Skua Gull, is on the top of a mountain in the secluded 

 isle of Foula, distant about eighteen leagues from the Orkneys. 

 We visited this romantic spot early in the mouth of July, and 

 received a hearty welcome from the poor but hospitable inhabi- 

 tants, to whom the sight of a stranger is an unusual occurrence. 

 On learning the object of our visit, the person who acts as school- 

 master and minister, for they have no resident clergyman, offered 

 to attend us to the top of the hill where the Bonxies (the Shetland 

 name of the Skua) were then hatching their young. We had 

 scarcely arrived at the place before we were attacked in the most 

 furious manner by these enraged and formidable birds, who flew 

 with the utmost violence in the direction of our eyes, and were 

 not at all intimidated by the report of our guns, or the numbers 

 that we killed. A large dog that we took with us was so roughly 

 treated that it was obliged to come to us for assistance, and my 

 son received a violent blow on the back of his head whilst stoop- 

 ing to secure a bird he had wounded. They lay their eggs, four 

 in number, of a dull olive colour with large dusky spots, on the 

 ground, among the short heath and grass, and it was with difficulty 

 we could find them; the young were covered with a fine cinnamon- 

 coloured down, exceedingly soft and beautiful. We brought some 

 of them alive to England ; they were very tame and affec- 

 tionate, but were much longer in getting their first feathers than 

 the young of any of the other gulls. Their voice was very 

 remarkable, strongly resembling the horns used by the guards of 

 the mail coaches." 



THE POMERINE SKUA. 



LESTRIS POMARINUS. 



THIS is another of the numerous birds of Scotland which are met 

 with more frequently on the eastern than on the western shores. 

 In the Firth of Forth it has been frequently seen in autumn and 

 spring chasing the smaller gulls. I have often observed it off 

 Dunbar at this piratical work, and when two of them unite in 

 pestering a flock of these birds, it is amazing to see the pertinacity 



