WE WALK ACROSS 115 
undertaking to say something about the birds as British. 
The Arctic skua, a dark form of which is known as 
Richardson’s Skua, belongs to a group of sea-birds of 
great interest. Four of these occur on our coasts, but 
only two nest with us, and on our extreme Northern 
Islands. The great skua, the ‘ bonxie’ of the Shetlanders, 
is one, and the other is the bird above. They are the 
‘robber-gulls;’ indeed, when one has grown familiar 
with their ways in such places as Kolguev, one comes to 
think of them as raptorial gulls. Not only do they rob 
at sea the poor little other gulls, but quarter the tundra 
for eggs and young birds as steadily as a brace of setters 
or a pair of marsh-harriers. 
A light wind was blowing, and it was not very cold nor 
very foggy. The snow, in melting off the top of the 
ridge, had worn.a little water-course which was now dry, 
and here, by pulling up lumps of saxifrage, sand and 
moss, we were able to construct very comfortable nests. 
The ridges too were covered with creeping birch, most 
of it dead and brittle. After working for half an hour or 
so, we had collected quite a big heap of this and made a 
capital fire. 
Here, in a pool, I shot a long-tailed duck, and Hyland 
a willow-grouse off the grasses, for to-morrow’s breakfast. 
After spending some time in writing up my diary, and 
in copying out my route observations, I set to work to 
collect every stick I could lay hands on for the morrow’s 
fire. I worked a long time at this and wandered far. I 
