3290 THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1872. 
130. Stercorarius catarractes, Linn. Common Skua. Native 
name, Skuir.— This noble bird, which in fearlessness of man 
surpasses any other with which I am acquainted, arrives in Feroe 
about the middle of April and leaves in October. It is much to be 
regretted that various causes are rapidly tending towards the 
extinction of the skua in Feroe, and in the course of another ten 
years this bird will probably be no longer found breeding in those 
islands. 
Svabo, writing in 1782, mentions that it lays its eggs towards 
the end of May, and has flying young ones about the end of 
August; in ancient days the island of Skuoe, which probably 
derived its name from the bird, produced 6000 young ones yearly ; 
in 1782 hardly ten pairs nested on Skuoe. He records them as 
once numerous op the islands of Vaagoe and Stromoe; they no 
longer breed there. Svabo, noticing their rapacious habits, and 
the damage they committed on the Fuglebergs, by destroying both 
eggs and young, proposed that they should be taxed as a bird of 
prey, and his recommendation was acted on, two bills of the skua 
being equivalent to a raven’s at the present day. 
This tax has greatly reduced their numbers, for the fishermen, 
when in their haunts, have only to scatter some fish-liver on the 
water, which at once attracts these birds: they are then shot for the 
sake of the bill, feathers and flesh, which latter makes excellent 
fishing bait. The proprietors of the land on which the skuas 
breed protect it, on account of the estimation in which the young 
is held for food, but protecting a bird by land which can be so 
easily destroyed on the sea, is of no avail, and farmers have spoken 
to me with regret of the diminution on their lands of this fine 
species. 
The breeding-places now occupied by the skua in these islands 
are—Little Dimon, where two or three pairs nest; Great Dimon, four 
pairs; on the high ground above the village of Sands, ten pairs; a 
small colony of two or three pairs nest on the hill of Flatinum, in 
the island of Sandoe. To meet with them again one has to go to 
the North Isles; there, on Syinoe, I found some seven pairs nesting 
on the 7th of June, but owing to the backwardness of the season 
we only found two eggs, and those in separate nests. In Videroe 
four or five pairs nest on the hill of Mealingsfiald, and I received 
two eggs from there on the 5th of June, also taken from different 
nests. In Bordoe they also breed, as I have received the eggs from 
