174 
LARlDiE. 
NATATORES. 
LARIDJE. 
PLATE CCCXIV. 
ARCTIC SKUA. 
LESTHIS PARASITICUS. 
The Arctic Skua is occasionally met with on the coasts of 
Scotland and Ireland, but hardly ever in the mature plumage, 
and it is apparently more a frequenter of the eastern shores of 
the continent than of our own. 
This species is also an inhabitant of the northern parts of 
Europe, Asia, and America, reaching as far as Greenland and 
Spitzbergen. During the summer months it resides on the shores 
of Norway, in the Feroe and Shetland Isles, the Orkneys, He¬ 
brides, and other islands off the coast of Scotland and Ireland, 
also about the mouths of the large rivers in Siberia. In 
America it is met with on the coasts of Labrador and Hud¬ 
son’s Bay. On the European continent the Arctic Skua is 
more frequently seen than either of the preceding species. 
The habits of this skua are very similar to those already 
described, but it is very easily distinguished from them by 
its very long middle tail-feathers, and by the manner of its 
flight while in pursuit of the devoted gulls, upon whom /e 
