RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 71 



observed her endeavouring to decoy us away, by pretending 

 to be lame, and tumbling about as if her wing were broken ; 

 and it was this circumstance which led us to look more 

 attentively." The habit of pursuing the Gulls, more par- 

 ticularly KittiwakeSj and making them disgorge their food, 

 is, according to many observers, the only means of sub- 

 sistence possessed by Richardson's Skua ; and it is doubtful 

 whether the bird is ever seen fishing for itself. The note, 

 or cry, sounds very much like " skui," a fact which has no 

 doubt suggested its name. 



The plumage undergoes several changes. Yarrell says 

 that, (( during its first autumn and winter, the young bird 

 has the base of the beak and the cere brownish-grey, the 

 anterior portion conspicuously curved and black ; the i rides, 

 dark brown ; the head and neck, pale brown, streaked with 

 dark brown ; the back, wing coverts, and tertials, umber 

 brown, margined with wood brown ; wing primaries, 

 brownish-black, tipped with pale brown ; tail feathers, pale 

 brown at the base, then brownish-black to the end, the 

 central pair half an inch longer than the others ; neck in 

 front, breast, belly, and under tail coverts, pale yellowish 

 wood brown, mottled and transversely barred with umber 

 brown ; legs and base of toes, yellow ; ends of toes and 

 anterior portion of membranes, black. 



" At another stage the plumage is of a uniform greyish 

 umber brown ; the whole of the light margins have disap- 

 peared, and the bird has attained its full size, measuring 

 twenty inches from the end of the beak to the end of the 

 long tail feathers, the central feathers now being three 

 inches longer than the next feather on either side. 



" In the adult plumage a few yellow hair-like streaks 

 appear on the sides of the neck ; next, the sides of the neck 



