BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



113 



Family STERCORA.RIIDA.E 



Skuas and Jaegers 



Bill epignathous, the tip of the upper mandible being decidedly curved 

 and furnished with a distinct nail or dentruni; a horny cere is saddled over 

 the opening of the nostrils; claws strong, sharp, and curved; primaries stiff 

 and rounded; central tail feathers more or less elongated; coeca much larger 

 than in other Longipennes; sternum with only a single notch on each side 

 instead of two as in Laridae. There is also a general tendency to a sooty 

 blackish coloration of the upper parts in the adult, to a gilding of the head 

 and hind neck, and to a whitening of the shafts of the flight feathers toward 

 their bases; while the young in all are noticeably smaller than the adults 

 and profusely waved or streaked with rufous, requiring years to reach the 

 full dimensions and plumage of the adult. In habit the skuas or jaegers 

 are dashing, intrepid and predatory, strong and vigorous of body and wings. 

 Armed with beak and claws which mimic the birds of prey, they harass 

 their weaker brethren of the gull family and compel them to drop, or dis- 

 gorge, their prey which is snatched up with great dexterity. This habit 

 has given them the names in common use among sailors — jaegers (hunters, 

 sea-hawks, teasers, boat swains, and, by a misconception, dunghunters) . 



This is a family of only five or six species, native to high latitudes 

 in both hemispheres and wandering widely in winter, some of the holarctic 

 species passing far beyond the equator in their migrations. In the breed- 

 ing season their habits change, and they proceed inland along the Arctic 

 coast to nest upon the tundra. Their food then consists largely of insects, 

 small mammals,, and other animals, and upon these they feed their young. 



Megalestris skua (Briinnich) 

 Skua 



Plate 4 



Catharacta skua Brunnich. Ornithologia Borealis. 1764. 33 

 Megalestris skua A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 35 



meg' ales' tris, Gr. ix.iya^, large and Xrja-Tpt's, pirate craft; sku'a from the Faroese 

 or Norwegian name of this bird 



Description. Blackish broivn, the feathers more or less tipped with 

 chestnut spots; shafts of the wing and tail feathers white, excepting toward 

 the tip; more or less streaked with white and chestnut around the neck; 



