Buffon'S Skua. I2 3 



of the performance was the following: — A bird would drop on the water as if 

 dead. Then it would flap helplessly for a bit, and if this did not move you, it 

 would raise itself on its tail, beating forwards slowly with its wings and mewing 

 like a cat. * Mewing ' exactly describes the sound. On August 7th we picked up 

 a young Skua and brought it back alive. The bird was almost full grown, and 

 had well developed primaries. Its parents showed no anxiety about it. It was 

 beside a lake, and as we approached ran and hid in some grass. It bit viciously 



but made no noise I never, in any single instance, knew an Arctic Skua 



stoop at a visitor near its nest; on the contrary an intrusion was met by every 

 wile of allurement. It was the old game of ' cold or hot ' ; until at last, when 

 you stood close to the nest, both the birds were reduced to a state of helplessness. 

 At such a time they behaved exactly alike. Sitting on their tails either in the 

 water or on the grass, and beating forward with their wings, they mewed all the 

 time like cats." 



Richardson's Skua will fiercely attack dogs, and even cattle that approach too 

 near its breeding grounds. 



The adult of the present species may be distinguished from the adult Poma- 

 torhine Skua by its smaller size and its elongate tail feathers. 



Family— STERCORARIID^E. 



Buffon's Skua. 



Stercorarius parasiticus, I/INN. 



BUFFON'S Skua, the smallest of the genus, was long confounded with that 

 last described — namely, Richardson's — from which, however, it is distin- 

 guishable by its size. This species does not breed in the British Isles ; but it 

 occurs as a straggler in winter, especially during, or immediately after, stormy 

 weather, along both the east and west coasts of Scotland and England. It has 

 been more frequently met with between the north of Scotland and the Yorkshire 

 coast than elsewhere on the east coast ; it has occurred more rarely on the west coast 

 of England. Mr. Edmund Elliot, of Kingsbridge, South Devon, has kindly sent us 



