208 THE ZOOLOGIS'. 
lat. 72° to 73°, in the waters near Pond’s Inlet. This was by no 
means the commonest Skua in any locality we visited, and was 
not observed to the north of the above latitude. 
Burroy’s Sxua (“Long-tailed Skua”’), Stercorarius parasiticus. 
—The first arrival of this species in Discovery Bay was on the 
28th May, 1876. They had already commenced to quarrel with 
the Snow Buntings. On the 5th June fresh numbers arrived, 
and by the end of the second week of June they were very 
common; one shot on the 7th June proved to be a female 
containing fully-formed eggs. As far as my actual observation 
went, these Skuas subsist entirely upon Lemmings, numerous 
specimens which I dissected containing remains of this animal 
alone; they seem, however, in all cases to reject its entrails, 
which probably possess some unpalatable or poisonous secretion. 
I have watched a Skua rapidly tearing out the viscera, and then 
devouring the rest of the body; and I have frequently found the 
discarded remains about lemming-grounds around Discovery Bay 
and its neighbourhood. I am inclined to think, however, from 
the extreme dislike shown to them by all other birds, that these 
Skuas are in the habit of destroying the nestlings of their 
neighbours. Skuas insult the Snowy Owl in the most gross and 
daring manner, defiantly flapping their wings and tail into its face 
and eyes. I found many nests and eggs of this Skua in Discovery 
Bay and its vicinity; the eggs are two in number, except in very 
rare instances, once three eggs having been found, and another 
time a single bird having been hatched. They make no nest 
whatever, laying their eggs upon the ground sometimes where it 
is bare, sometimes where thinly clad with herbage. The eggs are 
olive-green, sometimes with a brown hue, in their ground colour, 
rather thickly spotted and blotched with chocolate or blackish 
brown, and often marked with a few streaks of the same colour, 
especially at the larger end. The colouring is very variable, 
some that I have seen being like miniature Guillemot’s eggs. 
The size is about that of a Kittiwake’s egg, somewhat more 
pointed; the shell is remarkably thin. The first eggs were found 
on the 27th June. These Skuas are most courageous birds in 
defence of their nests; they will fly fearlessly at one’s face, and 
in this act were often knocked down with the gun-barrel, sticks, 
or stones, their flesh being in much request for the ship’s men. 
Skuas hover like a Kestrel, with tail and wings expanded, while 
