SKUAS. 



GREAT SKUA.— Plate 118. 21 inches. Upper 

 parts dark brown, mottled with rufous and dull white ; 

 under parts rufous-brown ; bill (hooked at end), and 

 legs and feet (the latter webbed), black ; central tail- 

 feathers extending half an inch beyond the others. 

 Resident and winter migrant. 



Eggs. — 2, variable, pale to dark brownish - buff, 

 olive-brown, or olive-green, with spots and blotches of 

 red-brown or dark brown and underlying markings 

 of gray; 2-8x2 inches (plate 136). 



Nest, — Of dry grass, heather, and moss, placed on 

 the ground. 



The Great Skua is all but extinct in our confines as 

 a breeding bird, lingering only in two spots in the' 

 Shetlands, whither it returns each spring. In appear- 

 ance it is like a mixture of Gull and Raven — a thick- 

 set, hook-billed, web-footed, dark-feathered bird, with 

 rounded tail and pointed wings. Few, probably, will 

 see the Skua in its breeding haunts, and not many 

 elsewhere. But if at sea a solitary, dark, crow-like 

 bird bears down on a vessel in straight, strong flight 

 at a height of about fifty feet above the surface of the 

 sea, and, having overhauled it, swings above for a few 

 moments to inspect its surroundings abeam and astern, 

 then, with the abrupt, oflBcial air with which he came, 

 passes off' on a similarly high, straight line with 

 quickly beating, pointed wings — that is a Skua. 



