i22 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



The habits of Richardson's Skua are graphically described by that accurate 

 observer, Dr. Macgillivray . . " there comes gliding from afar, with swift and steady 

 motion, a dark and resolute looking bird, which, as it cleaves a path for itself 



among the white Terns, seems a messenger of death His victim, light 



and agile, attempts to evade the aggressor. It mounts, descends, sweeps aside, 

 glides off in a curve, turns, doubles and shoots away, screaming incessantly the 

 while. The Sea-Hawk follows the frightened bird in all its motions, which its 

 superior agility enables it to do with apparent ease. At length the Tern, finding 

 escape hopeless, and perhaps terrified by the imminence of its danger, disgorges 

 part of the contents of its gullet, probably with the view of lightening itself. 

 The pursuer, with all his seeming ferocity, has no designs upon the life of the 

 poor Tern, and now his object is evident, for he plunges after the fallen fish, 

 catches it in its descent, and presently flies off to attack another bird. In this 

 way the marauder makes his rounds, exacting tribute from all whom he thinks 

 capable of paying it, and not sturdy enough to resist oppression." 



Mr. Trevor-Battye, in his " Ice-bound on Kolguev," says : — " We saw a great 



deal of the Arctic Skua Although greatly dependent, when at sea, upon 



the labours of other Gulls, the breeding pairs are as persistent robbers of eggs as 

 Rooks in a dry season, and may be constantly seen quartering the tundra for 

 eggs or young. I should be inclined to estimate that, of breeding birds on 

 Kolguev, there is about one pair to every seven square miles of country. We 

 never found a colony, nor even two pairs together. All those I saw belonged to 

 the light- coloured race. On June 29th we took eggs about half incubated. The 

 nest was among dead water grass in a bog, and was more than a mere depression, 

 for grasses had been walled into a lining. A nest containing one egg (July 7th) 

 was a simple depression in dry grass ; the egg had a remarkable escape. We 

 were driving along — four sleighs, which meant eighteen reindeer — when I called 

 out to Hyland [Mr. Trevor-Battye's 'honest and faithful companion' on Kolguev], 

 who was in front, to stop ; for some thirty yards or so away, a pair of Skuas 

 were behaving as though they had a nest. However, we could make nothing of 

 it, and had just taken our seats again to start off, when, as I stooped down to 

 disengage the hind leg of one of my deer, lo ! and behold, there was the nest 

 under my sleigh. The whole train of sleighs had passed over the nest, and yet 

 the single egg was not broken." 



Mr. Trevor-Battye describes the way these birds " carried on " when one was 

 near their nest as " past description." " They tried," he says, " to lead us away from 

 the nest by every conceivable device. They pretended that their eggs were in 

 two or three places other than where they really were. One very striking phase 



