404 LARID^. 



pause before we can distinguish the immature L. Richardsonii 

 from L. longicandatus, so much do individuals of each species 

 differ in size. 



Skuas have become very scarce in parts of Belfast Bay, where 

 in my boyhood they almost daily came under my notice in autumn, 

 and not unfrequently two or three in a day — in winter, I had not 

 the opportunity of observing them. I allude to the Kinnegar 

 or Holywood rabbit-warren, where in the fine breezy days of 

 September and October they thus appeared, and at the same 

 time terns, which are now about equally rare. Without the pre- 

 sence of terns or gulls, which the skuas make their caterers, they 

 are not to be seen, unless accidentally. Although we cannot ad- 

 mire their predatory character, they are very interesting birds, 

 from the great power and rapidity of flight which they display. 

 As they come sweeping down upon the large gulls, it is extra- 

 ordinary to observe these drop their prey, wliich apparently within 

 the next second of time is appropriated by the robber skuas. These 

 birds present a singular subject for contemplation in being born 

 robbers, endowed by nature with every faculty that will enable 

 them to bear off and live upon booty seized from or dropped 

 through fear by their most nearly allied species— the gulls and 

 terns. "^ 



I was told at Horn Head in 1832 of some species appearing on 

 the coast regularly in autumn and remaining during that season 

 and winter. On the 1st of August, 1850, a gentleman visiting 

 that locality saw several of these birds in pursuit of herring-gulls 

 as they flew out to sea. An observant shooter has seen a skua 

 (probably from his description L. pomarinus or L. Richardsonii) 

 in Belfast Bay in the autumn of 1843. Two were noticed there 

 on the 31st of August, 1843, and one on the 12th of September, 

 1844 ; — a herring-gull was chasing it at the time. At the entrance 

 of Dundrum Bay, county Down, on the 23rd of August, 1836, 



* I give the following as an unusual occurrence, from the journal of the late 

 John Templeton, Esq.: — "Aug. 3, 1812. Mr. M'Skimmin, of Carrickfergus, 

 mentioned to me that a black-toed gull {Larus crejndatus) had been caught on 

 a baited hook near that place. The fishermen remarked to him that they seldom 

 appear iu the baj', aud that when seen, they ai'e very shy, and keep at a distance from 

 their boats and lines." 



