STERCORARIIDA. 693 
THE LONG-TAILED or BUFFON’S SKUA. 
STERCORARIUS PARAS{TICUS (Linnzus). 
This circumpolar species is rather smaller and much more attenu- 
ated than the preceding, and is a less regular migrant to the British 
Islands. Though naturally more frequent in the north than in 
the south, it had not been noticed in any numbers in Scotland 
until the autumn of 1891; on the east side of England, however, 
it is comparatively common, especially between the mouth of the 
Tees and Flamborough Head, and many birds, some of them adults, 
were killed during the great storms of October 1879. Though rarer 
to the southward, this species is met with along the Channel, where 
it was abundant in October 1891, when individuals were also 
obtained inland. Until the invasion of 1891, the west was seldom 
visited, though old birds had occurred there in spring on several 
occasions, one having been shot in Cornwall as late as June 4th 
1877, and another in Cumberland on June 3rd 1885. In Ireland 
it has béen noticed in autumn, and, sparingly, in spring. 
The Long-tailed Skua does not breed in the Feeroes or Iceland ; 
but in Norway a few pairs inhabit the Dovrefjeld above the limit of 
forest-growth, while Wolley, Wheelwright and others found consider- 
able numbers nesting on the fells of Swedish Lapland to the north 
