26 NESTS AND EQOS OF 



South America. Breeds in high northern districts, and winters from the Middle 

 States and California southward to Brazil and Chili. 



The Parasitic Jaeger, like the others of this family, is eminently rapacious,, 

 and it is known as the "Man-of-War," from its habits of pursuing and robbing the 

 terns and smaller gulls. It breeds in the interior of Arctic America, and is espe- 

 cially abundant in the Anderson River region. Mr. Nelson records the following: 

 "This tyrannical bird occurs about the entire coast line of Bering Sea, but is most 

 numerous along the low, marshy coast of Norton Sound, and thence south to the 

 Kuskoquin River. Its breeding range covers the entire region from the Aleutian 

 Islands north to the extreme northern part of the mainland. Upon the Aleutian 

 Islands Dall found them in summer and winter. They were taken during the breed- 

 ing season on Kyska and Amchitka, near the western end of the chain. They have 

 been taken at Kadiak. and are plentiful from the Yukon mouth up to Nulato and 

 probably above. Elliott found them, occurring as stray visitors on the Fur Seal 

 group, and the writer noted them in Bering Strait vicinity during the summer of 

 1881." A common bird in the more northern portion of Asia and Europe. So far 

 as known, its general habits do not differ from those of the Pomarine. It is given 

 as the most common of the Skuas off the coast of Norway, but does not go far inland 

 to breed. The nest of this species Is made on islands or on the margins of lakes; it 

 is a mere depression in the ground, lined with a few grasses and withered leaves. 

 In Greenland it is said to be a resident species, and it breeds in Iceland on the moors 

 far inland. In the Shetland Islands this bird breeds in communities, fifty or more 

 pairs congregating at the same place. The eggs are usually two in number, some- 

 times three, and are as variable in ground color and markings as those of the 

 Eskimo Curlew. They vary from olive drab to green, gray and brown, marked with 

 several shades of chocolate, brown and ah obscure stone gray, distributed over the 

 entire egg. Size from 2.00 to 2.40 long, and from 1.50 to 1.70 broad. Nelson says that 

 the eggs are laid upon the mossy knolls or uplands in their haunts about the 5th 

 of June. The nest is merely a depression in the moss containing two eggs, in- 

 distinguishable from those of the next species, and measuring from 2.40x1.70 to 

 2.00x1.50. 



38. LONG-TAILED JAEGER. Stercorarius longicaudus Vieill. Geog. 

 Dist. — Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, south in winter to the Gulf of Mexico. 



The same plundering habits mark the character of this' bird as are peculiar to 

 any of the Jaegers or Skuas. It is distributed in the breeding season throughout all 

 parts of the region near the Arctic Circle, in Siberia, Northern Asia, Europe and 

 America, and on the islands of the Arctic Ocean. It breeds in Greenland and Ice- 

 land, is abundant throughout the barren grounds of the Arctic coast, and is said 

 to be very numerous in the vicinity of Fort Anderson, also on the shores of Frank- 

 lin Bay. It is also found breeding on several of the Orkney and Shetland Islands. 

 According to Nelson this graceful and handsome bird is the most common of the 

 Jaegers on the Alaskan coast and vicinity, and especially about Saint Michael's. 

 They arrive there about May 12 or 15, but are not numerous until ten days or more 

 later. He states that all the Jaegers are very destructive to the eggs of other birds, 

 and in spring nests of various water fowl are often destroyed by them. Nests found 

 in the Arctic regions are mere depressions in the soil, scantily lined with dry grass 

 and leaves. Some are placed far inland near small lakes, and often there is really 

 no nest, the eggs being laid on the bare ground. The eggs are said to be not always 

 distinguishable from those of the Parasitic Jaeger, but average smaller; exception- 

 ally large specimens of S. longicaudus are sometimes as large as exceptionally small 



