THE SEA-FLIERS. 201 



as much strength and skilfulness in the use of their wings as they do courage and audacity in planning 

 their attack, never leaving their victim until they have made him disgorge the contents of his stomach, 

 and appropriated it to their own use. Not unfrequently, indeed, they will kill and devour the bird 

 itself. Graba tells us that he saw one of them at a single blow shatter the skull of a Coulter-neb, and 

 various witnesses testify that they eat Sea Gulls and Guillemots, striking them dead with their beaks, 

 and afterwards tearing them to pieces. Wounded or disabled birds they remorselessly devour. In 

 the breeding-places they plunder the nests, breaking the eggs and swallowing the young. " A general 

 shriek," says Nordmann, " rises from a thousand throats as soon as one of these marauders is seen 

 winging his way towards the rock, and yet none of the brooding birds will venture to offer anything 

 like a serious resistance to the invader. He seizes hold of the young birds, wrenching them from the 

 very beaks of their parents, who only follow the robber to a little distance from the nest, without any 

 effectual result. So soon as the thief finds himself no longer pursued, he flies down to the sea, kills 

 and devours his prey, and then flies off with it to his own nest, where he disgorges it for the benefit of 

 his young family. When making these raids, the Skua has never been observed to use any other 

 weapon than his beak, although it would seem probable, from the sharpness of his powerful, strongly- 

 hooked claws, that they likewise may be resorted to as formidable instruments of attack. After a 

 plentiful meal, the Skua betakes himself to some rock, where he sits for a time with puffed-out feathers, 

 apparently enjoying a luxurious nap, and in that position he remains till the calls of hunger again 

 prompt him to active exertion." 



About the beginning of May, the Skuas may be seen congregating in pairs in the vicinity of their 

 breeding-places, where, upon some rocky platform or moss-grown overhanging ledge, they construct 

 their nests. These are generally mere cavities, hollowed out by the pressure of their bodies, and here, 

 during the first days of June, they lay two eggs of a dirty olive-green colour, spotted with brown. One 

 of their breeding-places visited by Graba was occupied by about fifty couples. According to Mr. 

 Dunn, this species has three breeding-places in the Shetland Isles — Foula, Rona's Hill, and the Isle of 

 Unst. In the latter place it is by no means numerous, and is strictly preserved by the landlords on 

 whose property it may have settled, from a supposition that it will defend their flocks from the attack 

 of the Eagle. That it will attack the Eagle if he approaches its nest is a fact that I have witnessed. 

 I once saw a pair beat off a large Eagle from their breeding-place on Rona's Hill. 



Should a man approach the nest, the old birds at once fly into the air screaming furiously, and 

 sometimes boldly attack the rash intruder on their privacy by dealing violent blows about his head 

 and face. Sometimes, according to Graba, bird-catchers hold knives above their caps, upon which 

 the birds occasionally impale themselves as they swoop violently down and endeavour to wound the 

 enemy's head. Both parents assist in the work of incubation, and hatch the eggs in about four weeks. 

 The young are nimble, gallant little fellows, and leave the nest almost immediately after quitting the 

 shell. A writer in the Records of the Wernerian Society informs us that on alarm of danger they 

 secrete themselves with great art behind stones, or in holes, and if captured make a most amusing 

 show of defence. When first hatched, the fledglings are warmly clad in greyish brown down, and are 

 reared upon small mollusca, worms, eggs, and similar delicacies, disgorged from the parents' crop ; 

 at a later period they are supplied with half-digested fish or flesh, or sometimes with young birds. 

 When able to provide for themselves, they are said to eat berries ot different kinds. By the end of 

 August they have attained their full growth, and in September are able to fly out to sea. The Common 

 Skua is easily tamed, and in some places, says Mr. Dunn, is a great favourite with the fishermen, 

 frequently accompanying their boats to the fishing-ground ; this the fishermen consider a lucky omen, 

 and in return for its attendance they give it the re-fuse of the fish which are caught, or supply it with 

 any useless garbage from their nets, 

 vol. iv. — 144 



