ARCTIC SKUA 461 



not infrequently attacked by a pair of Skuas, one of which, 

 dashing straight at it, will keep up the hunt until the poor 

 fugitive, almost exhausted, ejects its food, and this is in part 

 swallowed by the second Skua, which, all the time has kept 

 apace in the flight. 



If the nesting-haunts are intruded upon, the Arctic Skua, 

 when brushing by, will almost strike the invader with its 

 wings ; but, as remarked by Mr. Saunders, its swoops are 

 directed from behind or sideways, nor has he seen it make a 

 frontal attack. 



Voice. The voice is sometimes querulous in tone, at 

 other times almost pathetic. The note most often heard 

 is mee-mee : this may be followed by a shorter and more 

 sharply-sounded note, which may be syllabled me-ah- me-dh, 

 or even mdh-mdh. 



Food. In its piratical methods of obtaining food this 

 Skua resembles its congeners. Fish, ejected from the 

 stomachs of Gulls and Terns, form the chief food, but 

 disabled birds, and helpless fledglings are despatched, while 

 eggs are also plundered. In addition, insects, shell-fish, 

 and worms, are eaten ; Mr. Ussher cites an instance where 

 an Arctic Skua was shot when following the plough feeding 

 on worms (* Birds of Ireland,' p. 353). 



Nest. Moor-land sites are selected for breeding- 

 purposes, the nest being but a mere rough hollow in the 

 ground, chiefly among heather and other dry herbage. 

 Several nests, almost amounting to colonies, may be found 

 spread over a large tract of open moor. 



The eggs, laid about the end of May or early in June, 

 are normally two in number, of a deep olive colour, blotched 

 or suffused with darker brown. 



Geographical distribution. The Arctic Skua may be 

 said to be quite circumpolar in its breeding-range, and is 

 found in abundance during the nesting-season, from the 

 Scottish Islands northward. 1 But the darker form (vide 

 plumage), is rarer in the Spitzbergen Group, and the 

 higher latitudes of Arctic America, while it " predominates 

 towards the southern limit of the bird's breeding-range." 

 In the very high northern latitudes the white-breasted form 



1 " Pennant was the first to discover that it bred in the British Islands, 

 by finding it on the 1st of July 1772 on Jura, which, thanks to the pro- 

 tection accorded to it, it still inhabits, and this must be the most southerly 

 point in its breeding-range" (Newton). 



