487 



itself to beetles and cranberries for food. On the muddy margins of the inland sea I shot -a 

 young Dunlin, and broke the wing of an old Dunlin with one barrel, whilst with the second 

 barrel I killed a Little Stint. The cartridge-extractor of my gun was out of order ; and it took 

 me some time to reload. The wounded Dunlin ran a few yards, when a couple of Buffon's Skuas 

 came up, quarrelled almost under my nose for the wounded bird, and carried it off before I could 

 struggle through the mud to the rescue. Nearly all the Buffon's Skuas we shot had almost pure 

 white breasts ; but in one skin there is a brown collar, reaching from the shoulder to the centre 

 of the breast, on the left side." 



The eggs of Buffon's Skua bear a general resemblance to those of Richardson's Skua ; but, 

 as a rule, judging from a series in my collection, they are greener in tinge, and appear subject 

 to rather more variation. The ordinary type appears to be olive-green, blotched chiefly towards 

 the larger end with dark brown surface-spots, and more sparingly marked with pale purplish 

 brown shell-markings ; but some of the eggs are dull dark olivaceous brown in ground-colour, 

 and others are pale dull greenish. One or two have the markings hieroglyphic-like, almost as if 

 drawn with a thick pen ; and in one these markings are collected so as to form a broad wreath 

 round the larger end. In some the surface-markings are much paler than in others. In size 

 they vary from lf^ by 1J§ inch to 2^ by lf^ inch, and are oval in shape, tapering rather 

 abruptly towards the smaller end. Mr. Benzon informs me that he possesses an unspotted 

 variety of the egg of the present species from Sukkertoppen, in Greenland, and one with a single 

 dark blotch from Lapland. 



The specimen figured, on the same Plate with the adult Richardson's Skua, is the one above 

 described. I have not deemed it necessary to figure the young bird, as it may always be distin- 

 guished by the first two primaries only having white shafts. 



In the preparation of the above article 1 have examined the following specimens: — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, 6 ad. Vadso, Finmark, July 1st, 1875 (Collett). b, ? ad. Virihjaur, Lapland, July 5th, 1874 (Dahlbery). 

 c, d . Faeroes, 1868 (H. C. Mutter). d,2jun. Labrador (Moschler). e, 6 . Greenland (Erichsen). 

 f. St. Michael's, Alaska, May 27th, 1866 {H. M. Bannister), g, <$ ad. Barren grounds, east of Fort 

 Anderson, Arctic America (R. R. Macfarlane). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders. 



a,d,b,<Z. Quickjock, Lapland, June 1866 (R. Duff), c, ? ad. Thorshavn, Faeroes, June 14th, 1873 (H. C. 

 Mutter). d,juv. Orwell, Suffolk, October 1870. 



