398 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



(H. N., MS. Notes, and Zool. 1860, p. 710()). An immature specimen was shot on 

 Torbay in the winter of 180^5 ; and Mr. Gatcombe records an adult killed near 

 Plymouth (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc, viii. p. 299). There is an immature bird, 

 believed to belong to this species by Mr. G-atcombe, and said to have been shot on the 

 estuary of the Exe, in the collection lormed by the late Mr. Byne, which came into t!ie 

 possession of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn of Teignmouth. Another immature sjiecimen 

 from Exmouth was in Mr. Cecil Smith's collection, and on 18th October, 1891, two 

 were shot at that place, a dozen at Kingsbridge, and one at Ilfracombe. 



Mr. Piodd states that BufFou's Skua was a very rare bird in Cornwall 

 and that the only two instances he knew of were adults — one found inland 

 in the parish of 8t. Buryan, in September 186 1 ; the other sent to 

 Mr. Yingoe at Penzance from the neighbourhood of Falmouth in the first 

 week of October 1874, which was said to have been shot at a distance of 

 ten miles from the coast. To these we can add a third, also an adult, 

 which we saw in the Tniro Museum, which had been shot at Polperro. 



In Somerset we only knew of two examples i^revious to the irruption of 

 this species in the autumn of 1891 — one an immature bird shot by 

 Mr. C. Haddon, of Taunton, on the coast at Stolf'ord, in September 187'':5 ; 

 and the other an adult in perfect plumage, which was shot on the estate 

 of Mr. W. Ayshford Sanford, at Nynehead, as it rose off a dead Wood- 

 Pigeon which it was eating. This was towards the end of October, 1862. 

 Mr, Mansel-Pleydell knew of no Dorsetshire examples, but his county 

 partook in the visitation of this species we have so often referred to 

 above. 



Buflbn's Skua nests upon the ground on the fells of Sweden and Lapland 

 and is said to feed upon the lemmings, upon crowberries, large beetles, 

 &c. Formerly a few pairs nested in Caithness in Scotland, but were all 

 destroyed by a gamekeeper. This Skua is also said to have nested 

 occasionally on Holy Island and on the island of Hoy. 



Mr. Howard Saunders says that an unfailing distinction at all ages is 

 to be found in tlie colour of the shafts of the primaries : in the Long- 

 tailed or Buffbn's Skua only the two outer ones on each side are white 

 and the others are dusky ; in the Arctic or Pichardson's Skua all the shafts 

 are white (Yarrell's B. Birds, 4th ed. vol. iii. p. 684). 



Order TUBINARES. 



Family PROCELLARIID^. 



THE PETRELS. 



The Petrels are denizens of the wide ocean, where 

 they are ever flitting restlessly about, roosting upon its 

 surface, never approaching land except at the nesting- 



