ARCTIC OR RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 279 



ARCTIC OR RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 



Stercorarius crepidatus. 



After a tremendous gale on September 16th, 1840^ one of 

 this species was killed with a stone on the beach at Brighton^ 

 in the dark plumage *, and having the middle tail-feathers 

 considerably elongated. 



A second but immature example was killed at Worthing on 

 November 3nd, 1841, and on November 5th, 1843, another, 

 in plumage more nearly matured than either of the above, 

 the head and neck being much lighter in colour, and the 

 two middle tail-feathers more elongated. Thus far my own 

 notes. Mr. Dennis informed me that he had killed one on 

 a flooded meadow near Seaford, on October 8th, 1857. 



It is the smallest Skua which breeds in the British Islands, 

 the nest being constructed of moss, short grass, and heather, 

 and, like the other Skuas, it defends its eggs with great 

 boldness, and like them, wages a perpetual war with the 

 smaller Gulls. Mr. Booth found it breeding on the moors 

 of Caithness, as it also does in the Outer Hebrides. Hewit- 

 son says that the cry of this species at its nest more nearly 

 resembles that of a cat than of a bird. 



I have a specimen which was caught on a hook off the 

 Chain Pier at Brighton, in November 1844. Mr. Thorncroft, 

 of that town, records, in the 'Zoologist' (p. 3054), that he 

 killed a Richardson's Skua about two miles from Brighton, 

 on January 34th, 1850; and Mr. Jeffery saw a bird of this 

 species iu the flesh, at Chichester, on November 5th, 1873, 



* It -was from a specimen in this plumage that the well-known Arctic 

 Gull, or Skua, was redescribed as a distinct species under the name of 

 Richardson's Skua. 



