467 



where, however, it may probably be met with as a rare straggler ; and Mr. Howard Saunders 

 says (Ibis, 1871, p. 401) that, according to his experience, at Malaga the present species is the 

 most abundant of the Skuas off the coast of Spain in winter. All the family, he adds, " are well 

 known to the fishermen as ' Cagalo,' a name equivalent to that applied in Northern Europe." 

 According to Bailly, several birds of the year appeared on the Lac de Bourget, in Savoy, in 

 October 1847 and in November 1851, and others were observed at the same time on the Lake of 

 Geneva. Salvadori records occurrences, mostly of young birds, in Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, 

 Liguria, Tuscany, and the Emilia, to which Professor Doderlein adds a capture in the Modenese ; 

 to Sicily it is also a rare visitor, only two or thi'ee instances being known. It has occurred off 

 Malta, but does not appear to have been met with in the Greek archipelago. It has, however, 

 been frequently recorded from Southern Germany ; and the Putter von Tschusi-Schmidhofen, 

 writing to me respecting these, says : — " According to Fritsch, it has often been met with in 

 Bohemia; Von Pelzeln states that a young one was killed at Seefeld, in Lower Austria, in 1824 ; 

 and it has frequently occurred in Upper Austria. Bruhin says that it has been obtained near 

 Gams, in the Rhine valley, in the Vorarlberg ; Freyer states that one was shot in Carinthia, on 

 the Laibacher morass, on the 27th September 1841 ; and it has been met with singly in Hungary, 

 Siebenbiirgen, Galicia, Silesia, and Salzburg." 



It does not appear to have been observed off the coasts of Asia Minor and North-east Africa ; 

 but Colonel Irby writes that, according to M. Favier, it is found, though very rarely, near Tangier, 

 but he only mentions one specimen obtained, as far back as November 1845. It has, however, 

 been met with on the west coast of Africa; for Captain Shelley obtained it off Fantee, and 

 Andersson shot two examples in Walwich Bay, in lat. 23° S. 



In Asia the Pomatorhine Skua is very common on the tundras of Northern Siberia. Von 

 Middendorff says that he found it breeding in great numbers on the tundras of the Taimyr, 

 whereas on the Boganida he only shot one on passage. He first observed it on the 6th June 

 (O. S.) ; and on the 7th July he found, in lat. 74° N., the first eggs, two in number, which were 

 deposited on the moss without any nest under them. Above 74^° N. lat. he did not see any of 

 these Skuas. On the 22nd August a young example was shot close to the mouth of the Uda. 

 It does not appear to have been met with by either Von Schrenck or Dr. G. Radde; but 

 Dr. Finsch states (Ibis, 1877, p. 61) that he met with it between Tschornejar, on the 

 Schtschutschja river, and the Podarata river, which flows into Kara Bay. 



It has been obtained as far south on the coasts of Asia as Moulmein, as recorded by 

 Mr. Blyth, who writes (Ibis, 1859, p. 464) as follows: — "It will interest you to learn of the 

 capture of a fine adult specimen in the vicinity of Moulmein during last July (lat. 16° 20' N.). 

 This bird was procured by Major S. B. Tickell, who has presented it to the Asiatic Society's 

 Museum, Calcutta. He writes, ' it was picked up, or, rather, I should say, knocked down, by 

 some village boys in a swampy meadow, about five or six miles south of Moulmein. There had 

 been very heavy weather in the bay for some days past ; but the singular thing is, that this bird 

 should have ranged so wide from its usual haunts as to come within the influence of our tropical 

 monsoon.'" I may also add that in the collection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman there is a bird 



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