BRITISH BIRDS. 



221 



RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 



IMMATURE. 



THIS bird, which was formerly arranged as a 

 distinct species, under the name of the Black-toed 

 Gull, measures sixteen inches and a half in length, 

 and three feet four inches in breadth, and weighs 

 eleven ounces.* The bill is of a lead colour, dark 

 at the point, from which to the brow it is little 

 more than an inch in length : the nostrils are 

 placed near the nail or tip, in a kind of cere not 

 much unlike that of the Skua Gull. The whole 

 upper and under plumage is dark brown, each 

 feather slightly edged and tipped with ferru- 

 ginous : the greater wing coverts, and the first and 



* This is the weight given by Mr. Pennant. The specimen from 

 which this figure and description were taken, weighed only eight 

 ounces, but it was very lean. It was shot on the Durham coast, by 

 Mr. John Forster, of Newcastle, the ist of October, 1800. 



