LARID^. 393 



sometimes in winter, but it is not so numerous on the noi-th coast of the 

 county (M. A. M., Zool. 1859, p. 6331 ; A. von H,, Zool. 1874, p. 3907). 

 The specimens obtained are usually in the first and second year's plumage ; 

 adults, however, are not rarely met with. There is one which was taken 

 with a hook and line in the Torquay Museum, and others have been 

 obtained on Torbay, Plymouth Sound, &c., and also in North Devon. 



Although the nesting-stations of this fine Skua are more remote from 

 England than those of the other three species, it is (somewhat strangely) by 

 far the most common and the most numerous of all the Skuas which visit 

 our Devonshire coasts, some being seen off the south of the county every 

 autumn, and in some years, when autumn gales have been severe and 

 prevalent, great flocks appear in Torbay and Plymouth Sound and off the 

 Cornish coast. We have ourselves encountered great numbers of the 

 Pomatorhine Skua in October ux^on Torbay, where they were flying about 

 like large Hawks in chase of the smaller Gulls, and robbing them of their 

 flsh ; and one morning without any difiiculty Ave secured fine examples in 

 all conditions of plumage, among them some very fine white-chested adults 

 with the central elongated tail-feathers (which in this species are not 

 acuminate, but increase in width and are rounded at the end) perfectly 

 developed. When shooting these birds we were struck by the waj^ in 

 which they succumbed to a very slight wound. As our old boatman has 

 often said to us, " It is of no use to fire at a Gull until you can see its eye," 

 meaning that the feathers are so closely set that they are sure to turn the 

 shot unless the bird is within comparatively easj' range ; and this we have 

 found from long experience to be true enough, yet it was different with 

 the Skuas. We were shooting them with a little 18-bore muzzle-loader, 

 and dropped them dead upon the water at long distances, and judged them 

 to be but loose feathered birds, in consequence, in comparison with the 

 other Gulls which were the objects of their persecution. Mr. Gatcombe 

 has recorded numerous notes upon the Pomatorhine Skuas which came 

 into his hands at Plymouth. In the 'Zoologist' for 1883, p. 421, he 

 relates that in the shop of a bird-stuffer at Stonehouse he saw a specimen 

 of this Skua, " a young bird of last year in very interesting plumage,'' 

 ■which had been shot near the Manacles, off the coast of Cornwall, on the 

 strange date of .June 15th in that year; and we ourselves saw this bird in 

 the flesh at Plymouth. In October 1881, a Pomatorhine Skua was 

 obtained at Plymouth which had " two odd-coloured legs, one being wholly 

 black, the other partly light blue and partlj' black, similar to that of the 

 so-called Plack-toed Gull. It is somewhat remarkable that the stomach 

 of this bird, like that of a Honey-liuzzard [recently examinedj, contained 

 nothing but feathers : I think it probay)le, however, that these feathers 

 might have been accidentally swallowed by the bird when constantly 

 picking itself during the moult." 



An iiiirnaturo Pomatorliiiie Skua occurred at Plyuioutli, Doccnihor 27tli, lSr>2, niul 

 others in Marcli aTid ,A|)ril IH.')") (B., M.S. Notfs). A yuuiif^ liird waw killed in 1.S71 ; 



there were great ili^lits in the linglisli Channel oil' the uoulh coast (Sal die and 



Kingebridge) in JNovembar 1870. Three were secured at riymoutii, November lUth, 



