178 THE OENITHOLOGIST. 



The next occasion on which I had the pleasure of seeing 

 Skuas on migration was on the 18th of September, 1869, a 

 fine, bright, calm day, as I was in one of my fields looking at 

 men cutting oats, when chancing to look upwards, my attention 

 was drawn to a flock of fifteen Skuas passing at an immense 

 height on their usual course to the south-west, if the day had 

 not been so clear I could not have recognised them as Skuas, 

 for I was only just able to make out their long tails against the 

 clear, blue sky. Again, on the 3rd of October, 1874, 1 was 

 fortunate in witnessing a small flight, or part of a flight, of 

 Skuas migrating in the usual direction. The weather had 

 been very stormy, with heavy showers from the north-west for 

 some days before, and on this morning it was still blowing 

 hard, when about 10 o'clock a.m. I observed a flock of about 

 twenty Skuas flying up the river from the bay ; a short time 

 afterwards four birds passed, then a little flock of three, which 

 were followed by four ; and in about a quarter of an hour a 

 solitary bird (that, I think, was a Pomatorhine) brought up 

 the rear, and as far as I saw, ended the flight for the day. I 

 have frequently observed and shot solitary birds of this species 

 during the two autumnal months of September and October ; 

 but their spring visits are rare. In May, 1877, a party of six 

 birds accompanied a large flight of Common and Arctic Terns 

 visiting the bay and estuary. Three of the Skuas were in 

 light-coloured plumage, and three in the very dark or black stage; 

 and I imagined at the time, from seeing a light and a dark 

 bird keeping company, that these colours marked the male and 

 female, and in order to ascertain if my surmise was correct, 

 I shot three birds — one having the pure white throat and breast, 

 the white extending round the back of the neck, forming a sort 

 of collar that caused the dark back of head and crown to look 

 like a dark cap ; the second having only the white breast and 

 belly clouded with a tinge of brown ; and the third bird was 

 nearly pure black all over, but of a lighter shade underneath, 

 and having a few yellowish, hair-like feathers on the sides of 

 the neck, and all three had long tails, showing they were 

 adult. However, much to my surprise, on skinning and 

 dissecting them, all three proved to be females ; the ovaries of 

 each containing eggs varying in size from No. 8 to B shot. 



