431 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



would do what he could to provide accommodation. — H. T. Frkrk 

 (Burston Rectory, Diss, Norfolk). 



The Great Skua on Foula. — I have been twice in the Island of Foula 

 this year, — for five days in May, and, again, for three weeks in August,— 

 and I am satisfied that the Great Skua has increased in numbers, and that 

 there are now from 80 to 100 pairs that make the hills their home. But 

 alas ! though the birds have prospered in the past, they will do so no 

 longer, unless some means are taken to stop the wholesale egg-taking and 

 the slaughter of birds, which for some reason or another has been carried 

 on this year on a scale far exceeding previous seasons. It is not to be 

 wondered at that people to whom every penny is of consequence should 

 take eggs that lie absolutely under their feet, when they can sell them 

 readily by the dozen to dealers, with whom the parcel-post puts them in 

 easy communication ; but the thing must be stopped if only thirty-five or 

 forty young birds are allowed to be hatched in a season, and those the 

 smallest and weakest of their race, the outcome of the third laying of one 

 egg, which is the Bonxie's last effort to perpetuate her race, when the four 

 eggs of the first and second laying have been ruthlessly taken from her. 

 This robbery, however, would be stopped if the natives could be assured 

 that they had really no right to take the eggs. There are only some half- 

 a-dozen of them who do it habitually, and if one or two of these could be 

 caught and fined the trade in eggs would come to an end. But if the man 

 who takes an egg is bad, what is to be said of the man who shoots the 

 parent birds in the breeding-season ? The excursionist who comes to the 

 island for a few hours, with fifty or sixty others, does no harm. If he 

 brings a gun at all he is watched and followed, and he would certainly not 

 be allowed to shoot anything so precious as a Bonxie ; therefore the story 

 that a dozen carcases were found after the steamer had been at the island 

 is a statement based on no particle of truth ; but there has been 

 this year, between my two visits, a party of men who, in the close-time, 

 shot day and night, week-day and Sunday, and either killed very many 

 more than the two birds they have owned to, or else were past-masters in 

 the art of disturbing other people without getting what they were trying 

 for. Men who shoot a single specimen for a particular purpose could be 

 forgiven ; men who pop away at defenceless birds, and kill them almost 

 literally on their nests, ought to be told that neither gentlemen, sportsmen, 

 nor naturalists can regard their deeds with anything but the strongest 

 dispproval. — Adelaide L. Traill (23, Duke Street, Edinburgh). 



The Great Skua on Foula.— Mr. Barrington (p. 391) repeats " that 

 only two Great Skuas were shot, or fired at, in order to verify a very in- 

 teresting fact apparently unrecorded by naturalists," — by which, I presume, 

 he means his discovery of the colour of the sexes, and that of a dark and a 



