378 NATATORES. 



the water. It is this habit in the gulls of parting with their 

 property without a struggle, which has given rise to the 

 terms gull, guller, and gulling, among men, the active parties 

 in which, though not popularly termed skuas, are certainly 

 the most dangerous, and at the same time the most con- 

 temptible, of all the wingless lestres. These lestres have their 

 gradation of species, as well as the winged ones ; so that 

 while no wingless gull, however great or otherwise powerful, 

 can escape the larger ones, if he once ventures within their 

 peculiar breeding ground, there is no gull so small but that, 

 if he take not heed where he goes, he will find a lestris to 

 make him disgorge, as certainly as any of his winged name- 

 sakes. There is another point in the parallel : the food of 

 which the sea-gulls are robbed is very frequently that which 

 should go to the maintaining of their wives and families, 

 and it is even so with the wingless gulls. 



In the plumage of the common skua, the individual feathers 

 have the same firmness and decision as in that of the eagles, 

 and they have also the feathers on the neck produced and 

 pointed. Their wings are long and pointed, the first quill 

 being the longest, and the two middle feathers of the tail 

 are about an inch longer than the others. The only white 

 upon the mature bird is on the shafts of the primaries, and 

 partially on the webs. 



There is every reason to believe that, like the eagles, they 

 pair for life, as, when one is seen, another is seldom far off; 

 and though the male is not so easily distinguished from the 

 female as in the eagles, the sexes being very similar both in 

 size and in plumage, yet there is no doubt that these pairs 

 breed together. 



In the breeding season they are social, or select their own 

 ground, from which, for the reasons already stated, the other 

 birds keep aloof. As British birds, they are not very 

 numerous, even at that time, though they nestle in the 



