STERCORARIIDA. 687 
THE GREAT SKUA. 
MEGALESTRIS CATARRHACTES (Linneus), 
This is the largest European representative of the group of 
Parasitic Gulls, the members of which obtain their food chiefly by 
robbing the smaller sea-fowl. In the British Islands the only 
breeding-places of the Great Skua or ‘Bonxie’ are in the Shetlands, 
where a well-known colony on Unst, and another on Foula may 
be mentioned, at both of which the bird is protected. It seldom 
visits the Orkneys or the Outer Hebrides, and is decidedly scarce 
along the west side of Scotland, though occasionally met with 
on the east during the colder months ; and the same may be said 
of Wales and England, down to and throughout the Channel ; but 
it seems to be rarer than is really the case, because it frequents 
the fishing-grounds far out at sea, where the Gulls, which it robs, 
are plentiful. Exceptionally, after severe weather, it has been met 
with inland. It has rarely been obtained in Ireland. 
The Great Skua breeds in the Feroe Islands, though diminished 
in numbers by the ‘neb-toll’ to which rapacious birds are subject ; 
