390 LAUID/E. 



THE SKUA. 



Lestris catarrhactes, Liun. (t>p.) 

 Stercorarms ,, „ ,, 

 Larus „ „ 



Is rarely obtained on the Irish coast. 



The first specimen which came under my observation was in the 

 collection of Mr. Massey, Pigeon-house Tort, Dublin, aucl was 

 shot by that gentleman in the adjacent bay early in the month of 

 July 1833j where he had previously killed one or two others. I 

 have seen one from Portmarnock, Dublin coast, in the collectioii 

 of Dr. Farran, by whom it was found in November 1836, lying- 

 dead on the shore in a state of emaciation, but in good plumage. 

 Since that time, the species has been observed there, and in the 

 Bay of Drogheda (August, &c., IS^'i).'^ A skua shot by James 

 Martin, Esq., in the county Galway, early in the year 1835, and 

 sent to the metropolis to be preserved, passed eventually into the 

 Museum of Trinity College. A Lestris, particularly described to 

 me in a letter from Mr. Poole, as seen very near to. him in Wex- 

 ford Harbour, at the end of July 1848, must have been of this 

 species. 



Fowlers who have frequently observed skuas of different kinds, 

 describe one the size of a herring-gull, and in other respects 

 agreeing with the bird now under consideration, as having been 

 frequently seen by them in the autumn chasing gulls about 

 Holywood bank, Belfast Bay. : from the observant powers of my 

 informants, I have no doubt that the bird they saw was the Lestris 

 catarrhactes. 



Subsequently to the preceding note being made — early in 

 August 1848 — two of these skuas were killed at a shot on Ballyma- 

 carrett bank. A fine specimen, obtained near Holywood on the 18th 

 of September that year, came under my examination ; and on the 

 22nd, three were seen in company near Thomson's Embankment, 



* Mr. R. -T. Monlgomcn. 



