THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1872. 3291 
there, but during my stay in that island it was so foggy I never 
was able to visit their haunts. 
On the 22nd of May we visited the breeding-place of the skuas 
near Sands, in Sandoe, in company with Sysselmand Winther, who 
informed me John Wolley visited this place in 1849, and then 
about forty pairs were nesting; they are now reduced to ten pairs. 
When we had ascended to the elevated tract where the birds breed, 
each pair, on our approaching their nest, came sailing around our 
heads with vigorous and stately flight, suddenly swooping towards 
us with the rapidity of an arrow shot from the bow; as we neared 
the nest the circles became smaller, their darts more rapid, and 
their harsh note of anger louder. When we found the nest and 
touched the eggs their boldness increased, and they dashed at us, 
apparently, with every intention of striking, but just at the instant 
one involuntarily ducked the head to avoid the threatened blow, 
the bird changed its course, though more than once my head was 
grazed by the outspread pinions. Here the skuas nested in the 
moss, which covered many acres between the gray boulder rocks 
with its green carpeting; the nest, a hole about the size of a soup- 
plate including the rim, was trodden down to a depth of about 
four inches, and lined with pieces of moss and a few of the bird’s 
feathers ; the birds, however, appear to prepare several nests before 
they decide on using one. 
We found here six nests with two eggs each, the full comple- 
ment, and one with a single egg. When we had robbed a nest and 
placed the eggs in a basket, the birds left off dashing at us and 
alighted together on one of the mossy hillocks near at hand, which 
are their favourite perching places: these hillocks are covered with 
their droppings and their castings, which consist of the feathers 
and small bones of the birds they have devoured; I examined many 
of them, which were made apparently of kittiwakes’ feathers and 
bones: I do not suppose they can kill an adult kittiwake, but from 
the constant firing of the inhabitants at this species, there can be 
no lack of wounded ones about, which fall a prey to the skuas. 
Before leaving the breeding-place I got permission from the pro- 
prietor to shoot a pair: the stomachs of these were full of flesh. 
In the south islands of Fzroe, as already mentioned, we found 
the skuas with their full number of eggs laid by the 22nd of May; 
whilst in the northern isles, on the 7th of June, they had barely 
begun to lay. 
