NAMES OF THE SKUA. 339 



(Stockholm, 1847) ; and, in addition, a statement by Nils Gissler 

 (" Anmarkningar am Labben-Sterna, rectricibus maximis nigris 

 Faun. Suec. 129 ") in ' K. Sv. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1753.' Let 

 us now examine what is communicated in these quotations about 

 this bird. In ' Fauna Suecica,' Linnseus informs us that his 

 " Sterna rectricibus maximis nigris " is to be found "in Anger- 

 mannia,"* a province of Sweden, in which the Long-tailed Skua 

 is not to be found, and in " Finmarkia et alibi ad mare " (!) 

 As the Long-tailed Skua does not breed on the sea-coast, and 

 is not properly a marine bird, this note cannot probably refer 

 to it. But a still more powerful argument is found in Linnseus's 

 narrative of his * Wastgota-Resa,' because he there gives a full 

 account of what he observed with his own eyes at Marstrand, 

 on the west coast of Sweden. I wish I could give even an 

 approximate idea of Linngeus's vivid, expressive, and, at the 

 same time, humorous, style in the following modest translation : 

 " Elof t was here (at Marstrand) the name of the blackish sea- 

 gull that cannot plunge down in the sea itself to catch fish, but 

 is only created a robber among the sea-gulls. One saw with 

 interest how this Cossack pursued the other gulls as soon as they 

 had caught a fish, and did not cease to pursue them till the 

 gull had vomited up the fish he had caught and already packed in. 

 I have seen with astonishment that a tame gull, which I have 

 had several years in the garden of the Academy (Upsala), even 

 if it has got ever so little food, instantly vomited it up if some- 

 body pursued it a little afterwards. This faculty of easily 

 vomiting, the Creator has used for the support of our Elof's 

 family ; for, as the gulls often fish more than they ought to, they 

 can easily afford to pay tribute to Swartlasse ; + but, on the other 

 hand, Nature has so arranged it that Labben§ may not in- 

 crease too much, and therefore it is also the rarest of all the 

 gulls. To this is added that this Struntjagar [| is not very 



* No doubt he had got this information from Artedi, who had lived in 

 that province. 



f The fishermen's name for the Common Skua in Bohuslan, Swedish 

 west coast. 



% Another Swedish name for the Skua, alluding to its blackish colour. 



§ A third Swedish name for the Skua. 



|| Another name. 



2d2 



