694 LONG-TAILED SKUA. 
of lat. 68°. It breeds in Spitsbergen, and also in Novaya Zemlya 
where Admiral Markham obtained a nestling, now in the British 
Museum. Eastward, this species can be traced across the tundras 
of Siberia to Bering Sea, and it is widely distributed over the Arctic 
regions of America. Col. Feilden met with ‘no other Skua in Sinith 
Sound at 82° 50’ N.; it breeds‘also in many parts of Greenland, and 
visits Jan Mayen. On migration it ranges southward as far as the 
basin of the Mediterranean, and down to about lat 40° N. on the 
east of America, while on the Pacific side it has reached lat. 20° N. 
The eggs—usually 2 in number—are laid on the ground in some 
slight hollow, and are smaller, greener, and often more scrolled than 
those of the Arctic Skua, which they otherwise resemble : measure- 
ments 2 by 1°5 in. The birds are very bold when their nest is 
approached, and utter a loud shrieking note ; the flight is remarkably 
swift and elegant. In summer, crowberries are largely consumed by 
the young ; at other times beetles, crustaceans, worms, small birds, 
fish robbed from other Gulls or Terns, and lemmings, form the diet 
of this species, with a preference for the last kind of fare. 
The adult has the forehead, lores, crown and nape brownish- 
black ; lower cheeks and neck buffish-yellow ; mantle and central 
tail-feathers of a greyer brown than in the Arctic Skua; wings and 
the shorter tail-feathers dark brown; breast chiefly white; flanks 
and belly greyish-brown ; bill dark horn-colour ; legs olive-grey ; feet 
black. Length 23 in., including the long tail-feathers, which some- 
times project as much as 8°5 in. in the male and 7 in the female ; 
wing 11°9 in. Immature birds are barred with greyish-brown and 
white on both upper and under parts—especially on the breast, 
flanks, and tail-coverts. ‘The young of the year are subject to a 
little variation in tint, especially on the lower surface, but are always 
greyer and less rufous than examples of the Arctic Skua. The 
readiest distinction at any age is, however, to be found in the shafts 
of the primaries; all of these being w/éfe in the Arctic Skua, 
whereas in the Long-tailed Skua ¢he trvo outer ones only on each side 
are white, the rest being dusky: a fact which was distinctly indicated 
by Linnzeus in his description. 
In the young of this and of the two preceding species the inter- 
digital webs are parti-coloured, as shown in the vignette of the 
Pomatorhine Skua (p. 690). It was this peculiarity which led 
Banks to confer the mere name crepidatus (sandalled) upon the 
Arctic Skua, though Gmelin was the first to give a proper description 
of that species. 
