POMERINE SKUA. 495 



with which they keep up the attack, following the distressed gulls 

 through their many turnings in the air, and buffeting them all 

 the while into a state of the greatest terror. When storms are 

 frequent, however, they seem unable to meet the blast with the same 

 ease as the gulls, and consequently they try to cross the country to 

 the other side that is, from east to west in quest of both shelter 

 and objects of attack. A very fine specimen, now before me, was 

 caught in a disabled state on the public road near Larkhall, in 

 Lanarkshire, one stormy evening a few winters ago, by a female 

 hawker, who put it into her basket, thinking it was a curious duck 

 that had strayed from a neighbouring farm. Joyful in the prospect 

 of a dinner on the morrow, she declined parting with the windfall 

 to an inquiring bird collector, who had a better knowledge of its 

 character, and unwisely took the bird home. Speedily, however, 

 the "duck" dispelled the woman's belief in its anatine descent 

 by inflicting one or two severe bites which, as she pathetically re- 

 marked, "werena' like the bite o' a braid neb at a';" so it was 

 reserved for a better fate, as in all likelihood the aroma given off 

 in the process of cooking a skua would have entailed its total loss. 

 While looking at it, I am reminded of an incident lately communi- 

 cated to me by a medical friend in Glasgow who presented an old 

 woman in the Highlands with the body of a sea eagle he had just 

 flayed as a veritable turkey. Sometime afterwards the doctor, 

 happening to meet the recipient, expressed a hope that the "fowl" 

 had been acceptable. "Ou, aye," said the old lady, "it was agude 

 turkey, but oh it was teuch!" 



This species of skua does not entirely depend upon its piratical 

 exertions for subsistence, but contents itself occasionally with a diet 

 of putrid fish or small dead animals which it happens to meet with 

 in its flights along the shore. It has even been known to devour 

 rats and birds. 



Mr Graham has sent me word that his friend Mr Colin M'Vean, 

 who has a very accurate knowledge of British birds, has found 

 this skua breeding in the Outer Hebrides. I have not myself seen 

 it there, nor have I ever obtained a specimen from any part of the 

 Long island. It has occurred in the Firth of Clyde and on the 

 Ayrshire coast; in Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries- 

 shires, but only, so far as I am aware, in the winter season. 



