General 
descrip- 
tion. 
Male bird. 
Female. 
516 NATATORES. CATARACTES. SKUA, 
thers of these birds have a very strong smell, not unlike that 
peculiar to the Petrels, to which genus, as I have before re- 
marked, they shew much affinity *. 
Prate 100. represents the Common Skua in about four- 
fifths of the natural size. 
Head, cheeks, and region of the eyes, deep yellowish- 
brown. Neck having the feathers wiry and pointed ; 
and, together with the under plumage, of a deep 
brownish-grey, or clove-brown, marbled and tinged 
with reddish-brown. ‘The first quill having its outer 
web and tip blackish-brown; the rest the same on the 
tips only, the basal part being white; shafts of all of 
them white, and strong. Upper plumage dark reddish- 
brown, with lighter-coloured oblong spots. Tail of 
twelve feathers; its basal half white, the remainder 
deep brown; rounded, with the two middle feathers a 
little exceeding the rest in length. Bill brownish-black, 
with the soft corneous part slightly elevated above the 
hooked tip. Lower mandible grooved, and forming an 
angle at the symphasis. Orbits black; inides deep 
hazel-brown. Legs rather strong, and covered with 
large prominent black scales. Claws black, strong, 
hooked, and grooved beneath. 
The Female resembles the Male bird both in colour and 
size ; and there appears to be but little variation in the 
changes of plumage from the Young to the Adult 
state. 
* Mr Nett has now (1832) in his possession a Skua, that was brought 
to him as a nestling from Rona’s Hill in summer 1820, when the gentle- 
men engaged in the Government T'rigonometrical Survey were encamped 
on that mountain. It likes herring, which it swallows whole, but prefers 
a piece of very fat boiled mutton ; it is also fond of soft cheese. When it 
cries, it opens its mouth to the full gape, and the scream it utters sounds 
somewhat like skui. It moults but once a-year. When irritated, or pre. 
paring to attack, it raises the neck-feathers in the manner of a game-ccck. 
