Contfibutlom to the Ornithology of India, Sj^c. 369 



and S. pomarinus, Grray^ the Pomarine skua, of which hitter 

 Dr. Jerdon remarks, that " a specimen was procured on tlie 

 Burmese coast by Major Tickell/' adding" that "as it is a bird 

 frequenting- high Latitudes, its occurrence in tropical regions 

 must have been quite exceptional/'' As a matter of fact, how- 

 ever, I saw at least fifty skuas between Gwader and Bombay, 

 and this was in splendid weuther and during February, so that 

 the birds cannot be exceptional stragglers. If my bird belongs 

 to any of the four sipecies ahove noted, it is parasiticus j but I 

 think it not improbable that it may hereafter turn out that 

 both my specimens and Major TickelFs belong to a distinct 

 species intermediate hetweeu po-marimis and parasiticus, in which 

 case it may stand as S. asiaiicus, nobis. The following- are the 

 exact dimensions and a description of my bird : 



•A male killed at Pusnee on the Mekran Coast, a short distance 

 beyond the Sindh boundar}'-, on the 16th February 1872; leng-th, 

 19; expanse, 45; tail from vent, 6*4; wing, 13 ; wings, Avhen 

 closed, reach to end of longest tail feathers ; bill at front, 

 including cere, 1"2 ; cere only, 0'7 ; bill from gape, 2'02 ; tarsus, 

 1"8; feet, length, 3*3 ; width, 2*4, mid toe and claw, 1"78; weight, 

 IB 3 oz. 



The legs and feet dull black ; bill brown ; the cere, pale 

 greenish brown ; the irides, brown. 



The central tail feathers are manifestly imperfectly developed, 

 one projects 0-75, and the other 0'25 beyond the rest of the 

 tail; the bird is obviously in a state of chang-e of plumage as 

 the two first primaries in each wing are old and compartively 

 pale brown, with conspicuous white shafts only tinged brownish 

 for about 0-5 immediately above the tips; while all the other 

 primaries are new and very dark brown, almost black, with 

 only the basal half of the shafts white, and even that slightly 

 tinged brown ; some of the secondaries, scapulars, coverts, and 

 feathers of the back are brown ; the same dull pale umber as 

 the first two primaries, and so are two of the tail feathers, 

 while the whole of the rest of the back, wings, and tail are of 

 the same deep blackish brown as the third to the tenth 

 primaries. What is noticeable is, that on the back and scapu- 

 lars, the paler brown feathers have no white tippings, which 

 most probably have worn off, these feathers being the old ones, 

 but all the dark feathers of these parts have narrow brownish 

 white margins. The upper tail coverts are conspicuously tipped 

 with white, and the longer ones have two, very broad, slightly 

 rufous or fulvous white bars. The forehead, crown, and occiput, 

 are dull, pale, wood brown, here and there, faintly tinged rufescent, 

 the feathers with pretty broad blackish brown central streaks ; 



