40 birds of ontario. 



Order LONGIPENNES. Long-winged Swimmers. 



Family STERCORARIID^. Skuas and Jaegees. 



Genus STERCORARIUS Beissox. 



STERCORARTUS POMARINUS (Temm.). 



12. Pomarine Jaeger. (36) 



Middle tail feathers ttnally projecting about four inches, broad to the tip. 

 Length, about 20 inches; wing, 14; bill, li-l|; tarsus, about 2. Adult: — 

 Back, "wings, tail, crissum and lower belly, brownish-black ; below from bill to 

 belly, and neck all round, pure white, excepting acuminate feathers of sides of 

 neck, which are pale yellow ; quills, whitish basally, their shafts largely white ; 

 tarsi — above, blue ; below, with the toes and webs, black. Xot quite adult : — As 

 before, but breast with dark spots, sides of the body with dark bars, blackish 

 of lower belly interrupted; feet, black. Yotmger: — Whole under parts, with 

 upper wings and tail coverts, variously marked with white and dark; feet, 

 blotched with yellow. Young : — Whole plumage transversely barred with dark 

 brown and rufous ; feet, mostly yellow. Du-iky «tage (coming next after the 

 barred plumage just given?); fuliginous, unicolor; blackish-brown all over, 

 quite black on the head, rather sooty-brown on the belly ; sides of the neck 

 slightly shaded with yellow. 



Hab. — Seas and inland waters of northern portion of the northern hemi- 

 sphere; chiefly maritime. South in North America to the Great Lakes and 

 New Jersey. 



Nest composed of grass and moss placed on an elevated spot in a marsh. 



Eggs, two or three, grayish-olive, with brown spots. 



The Pomarine Skua is occasionally seen in company with the large 

 gulls, which spend a short time during the fall around the west end 

 of Lake Ontario, following the ' fishing boats and picking up the 

 loose fish that are shaken out of the nets. It is spoken of by the 

 fishermen as a bird of a most overbearing, tyrannical disposition, one 

 which they would gladly punish, but on these trying trips all hands 

 are occupied with matters of too much importance to think of shoot- 

 ing gulls. 



The home of this species is in the far north. Mr. Xelson says, ;in 

 the "Birds of Alaska": "They are abundant in spring off the mouth 

 of the Yukon. Along both shores of the Arctic to the north they 

 are very numerous, and to a great extent replace the other two 

 species. 



" They are especially common along the border of the ice-pack and 

 about the whaling fleet, where they fare abundantly. 



" The peculiar twirl in the long tail feathers of this species renders 

 it conspicuous and easily identified as far away as it can be seen." 



