LARID.E. ovo 



on Steart Island, also at Combwitch, on the Bridgwater river, where it 

 was called a " MuUin Hawk," and one, recorded by ourselves, in immature 

 plumage, was shot at North Curry some distance inland, and specimens 

 have also occurred at Weston-super-^Mare. All these were the produce of 

 the month of October, 1879, when a large number of Pomatorhine Shuas 

 appeared otf the S.W. counties (Zool. 18S0, pp. 19, 20). In the same 

 year and at the same period, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell states that a flock 

 visited Poole Harbour, but before that time this Skua had only been a rare 

 occasional visitor to the Dorset coast in spring and autumn. 



Genuine eggs of the Pomatorhine Skua are very rare in collections. 

 The bird is said to nest on some of the Lapland fells, also in Greenland, 

 and on the tundras of Northern Russia (Yarrell's P. Birds, ed. 4, vol. iii. 

 p. 070). 



The range of this bird is very remarkable, and Mr. W. Theobald, late 

 Deputy Supt. Geol. Survey of India, kindly informed us that a specimen 

 was killed a few miles from Moulmein in 1859. 



Richardson's Skua. Stercorarius crepidatus (Gmel). 



[Bobber Bird, Irish Lord, Tom Harry, Dev. ; Arctic Skua, Boat- 

 swain Gull.] 



A passing visitor, sometimes not uncommon in autumn, but rarely seen 

 in spring, as it generally keeps well out to sea on its migrations. The 

 young or immature birds are most frequently met with in Torbay in 

 October, and there are specimens of both the adult and young from that 

 beautiful bay in the Torquay Museum. This Skua also occurs occasionally 

 at Plymouth ; on the Exe estuary ; and on the North Devon coast, where 

 it occurred as early as August in 1872. It is sometimes driven inland in 

 an exhausted state by stormy weather. 



llichardsou's Skua, one of the species conspicuous in the adults for 

 tlic possession of two elongated acuminate central tail-feathers, is quite a 

 common bird in the summer-time off the north-west coast of Scotland, 

 where we have frecpiently seen it, not only closely following the steamers 

 for anything which might be thrown overboard, but hovering close over the 

 heads of the passengers on deck, as if it would dart down and take their 

 buns and sandwiches out of their hands. Hut although so numerous off 

 the Scottish coast, and nesting commonly on the islands of the Hebrides 

 and on the Orkne5-s, liichurdson's Skua is far from a frequent visitor to 

 the S.W. counties, and is not seen so often, or in such numbers, as the 

 ])n'ccdin:i species. Still, we have encountered many of these liirds on 

 Torhuy in October, where we obtained examples of the wliite-ltreasted 

 and also of the ])lack forms, and we have known specimens in all stages 

 of plumage to occur occasionally in the autumn on the Harnstaple river, 

 whence Mr. Cecil Smith received one which was shot in Octolter, and from 

 the d(^scription of it furnished by him to Mr. Dresser (' Birds of Europe,' 

 vol. viii. p. 473) it was evidently a bird in its second year. A tine adult 



