1876.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERCORARIIN.E. 327 



& S. Beitr. Vbgelk. iii. p. 853 (1822); Naum. Vog. Deutsch. x. 

 p. 506, pi. 272, 273 (1840). 



Cataractes parasiticus, Fleming, Brit. An. p. 138 (1828); Selby, 

 111. Brit. Zool. ii. p. 520 (1832). 



Lestris richardsonii, Swain., Sw. & Rich. F. Bor.~Am. p. 433, 

 pi. 73 (1831); Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 492 (1852); Audubon, B. 

 Am. vii. 190, pi. 452 (1844); Gould, B. of Eur. v. pi. 441 (1837); 

 Meyer, 111. Brit. B. vii. p. 177 (1857). 



Lestris parasita, Keys. & Bl. Wirb. Eur. p. 240 (1840); Midd. 

 Sib. Reise, p. 241 (1853). 



Stercorarius parasiticus, Schaeff. Mus. Orn. p. 62, pi. 37 (1789) ; 

 De Selys-L. Fn. Belg. p. 155 (1842); G. R. Gray, List B. Br. Mus. 

 iii. p. 167 (1844) ; Gray, Gen. Birds, iii. p. 653 (1849); Lawr. 

 Baird's B. N. Am. 839 (1858) ; Blakiston (B. N.W. A.), Ibis, 

 1863, p. 152; Degl. & G. Orn. Eur. ii. p. 397 (1867); B. Ross, 

 Nat. -Hist. Rev. 1862, p. 289; Coues, Pr. Phil. Ac. 1S63, p. 132; 

 Newton, Ibis, 1865, p. 510 (Spitzbergen); Andersson, B. of Damara 

 Land, p. 357 (1872); Gould, B. G. Brit. v. p. 80 (187 ); Hume, 

 Stray Feathers, p. 268 (1873) (Sindh) ; Buller, B. New Zealand, 

 p. 268 (1873); Coues, Rep. Prybilov Is. no. 541 (1874); Sharpe, 

 Voy. 'Erebus and Terror,' i. App. p. 32 (18/5), Newton, B. Green- 

 land, p. 107, Arct. Man. (1875). 



Lestris parasiticus, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 208 (1857). 



Lestris parasiticus, var. coprotheres, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 209. 



Lestris thuliaca, Preyer, Reise n. Island (1862). 



Lestris parasitus, Th. v. Heuglin, Ibis, 1872, p. 65. 



Lestris spinicaudus, Hardy, Ftev. et Mag. Zool. 1854, p. 657. 



Stercorarius spinicauda, Layard, B. S. Af. p. 366 (1867). 



Stercorarius parasitica, Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chic. Ac. i. p. 303 

 (1869) (Alaska). 



Stercorarius asiaticus, Hume, Stray Feathers, p. 269 (1873) 

 (Sindh). 



Lestris boji, schleepii, benichii, Brehm, and Stercorarius tephras, 

 Malmgren, are believed to be this, whilst Lestris brachyrhynchus 

 and L. microrhynchus, Brehm, are ascribed to the next ; but it would 

 be a mere waste of time to verify Brehm's supposed species. 



Dr. Coues follows those authors who have chosen to divert 

 Linnaeus' s name of L. parasiticus to this species — a supposition 

 utterly negatived by the description in the Syst. Nat. p. 226, which 

 is based upon that in his ' Fauna Suecica,' p. 55, No. 156. Nothing 

 could well be clearer than his statement : — " rectricibus duabus inter- 

 mediis ^^iss^is,^ which can only apply to the Buffon's or Long- 

 tailed Skua ; but, as if to make assurance doubly sure, Linnaeus 

 adds " remiges nigrse, rachi 1. 2. nivea." The natural inference 

 from drawing especial attention to the fact that the shafts of the 

 first and second primaries are white, is clearly that those of the 

 other primaries are not white. Now the particular characteristic 

 by which "Richardson's Skua," may be distinguished at any age 

 beyond that of the nestling, is that the shafts of the other primaries 

 are conspicuously lighter than in those of Buffon's Skua, in which 



[11] 



