THE GREAT SKUA IN FOULA. 



301 



steamer came there, and that the excursionists shot numbers of 

 " bonxies," and thirteen dead ones were picked up on the hill 

 after they left. It may be that some readers of * The Zoologist' 

 will add my name to the list of those who have contributed to 

 exterminate the Great Skua from its remaining haunts in Great 

 Britain, but it should be observed that not a single egg was 

 purchased or taken by me, and it was only after great hesitation 

 that I could summon courage to shoot one at a distance from the 

 breeding place. My friend shot another, against my wish, but 

 he has thereby enabled me to exhibit to others a well-marked 

 variation in colour, not referred to in any book on British birds 

 to which I have access. 



In ' The Ibis' for 1883 (p. 230), Mr. Howard Saunders refers 

 to a dark-coloured Great Skua in the Bayonne Museum, with 

 large, coarse feet ; but no book at hand refers to dark and light 

 forms easily distinguishable and equal in number at the breeding 

 station. Near the Kame my friend noticed a patch of the 

 Shetland rarity, Trientalis europcea. A beautiful little plant this 

 is, and, as it was the first time I had ever gathered it, it will 

 always be associated in my memory with the Great Skua. 



Richardson's Skua does not breed on the top of Sneug, nor 

 anywhere near the top ; the Great Skuas reserve this for them- 

 selves, and if a Richardson's Skua happens to fly near the big 

 fellows above, he is immediately attacked and driven down. 

 Richardson's Skua breeds on harder ground, with less vegetation, 

 than the Great Skua. The Great Skua nests on the mossy turf on 

 the southern slope of the Sneug and its two ridges. Richardson's 

 Skua breeds in several places in small numbers. The lowest half 

 of the steep northern face of the Sneug, and two places low down 

 on the southern face, as well as here and there on the less 

 frequented parts of the moorland, may be mentioned. On the 

 whole Richardson's Skua is not so numerous as the Great Skua, 

 and there are at most not more than sixty pairs scattered over 

 the island. We observed about three dark Richardson's Skuas 

 to one white-breasted one; the coloration is not sexual but the 

 light birds uttered occasionally a low, subdued cry, which I never 

 heard from the dark bird. Both forms were desperately noisy 

 compared to the Great Skua, and they reminded one, by their 

 cries, of a colony of Kittiwakes. Like the Great Skua they 

 attacked us when approaching the nests, and showed even greater 

 audacity. 



