510 Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 



datus, Scoresby, i. p. 534 ? ; Lestris pomarinus, Ross, p. 196 ; 

 Torell, p. 64. L. pomarina, Malmgren, 1863, p. 116. Ster- 

 corariiis pomarhinus, Id. 1864, p. 411. 



As Dr. Malmgren remarks, Scoresby states that he observed 

 two species of Skuas in Spitsbergen ; but the name he uses for 

 the less common kind leaves it doubtful whether he meant the 

 Pomatorhine or the Long-tailed Skua. Ross speaks positively 

 as to a single example having been seen during Parry^s voyage. 

 This flew past the boats in lat. 82° N. As I have previously 

 stated, some of our party in August saw a bird in Sassen Bay, 

 which Mr. Wagstaflie, who was present, described to me as 

 having the form of tail which is so unmistakeably characteristic 

 of the adult Stercorarius pomatorhinus ; and when, between Bear 

 Island and the Norwegian coast, we saw many examples of this 

 species, he recognized them at once as being the same as the 

 bird he had previously told me of. A week or two later Dr. 

 Malmgren, on his passage home, found it equally plentiful in 

 much the same latitude. No specimen, that I am aware of, 

 however, has yet been procured in Spitsbergen. 



14. Stercorarius parasiticus (L.) ; G. R. Gray, List B. 

 Br. Mus. (1844), pt. iii. p. 167, exempl. a ; Evans and Sturge, 

 p. 172; Malmgren, 1864, p. 390. " Struntjager," Marten, 

 p. 87, tab. L. fig. d. Larus parasiticus, Phipps, p. 187; Scores- 

 by, i. p. 534. Lestris parasiticus, Ross, p. 196. Stercorarius 

 cepphus, Richardson, P. B.-A. ii. p. 432, note ? Lestris para- 

 sitica, Torell, p. 65 ; Malmgren, 1863, p. 105. 



This bird is quite as common in Spitsbergen as I have seen it 

 elsewhere, except among the Lofibden Islands. Parry's Expe- 

 dition met with it on their journey over the ice, but not north 

 of lat. 82° 2' N. Dr. Malmgren found it breeding on the small 

 islets near the coast, and once on the mainland. It was also, he 

 says, very common on Bear Island. I never saw in Spitsbergen 

 an example of the whole-coloured race or variety, on which was 

 founded the Stercorarius richardsoni of Swainson ; and I believe 

 Dr. Malmgren's much greater experience is the same. He, how- 

 ever, remarks that the Spitsbergen specimens differ from those 

 of Scandinavia by having a notably smaller bill, a blacker back 

 and head, with a broad ashy-grey band across the upper part of 



