NAMES OF THE SKUA. 341 



studied, and described, and not the Long-tailed Skua, which is 

 not proved to be known to Linnaeus, even if some of the later quo- 

 tations in ' Systema Naturae ' should refer to that bird. Besides, 

 and finally, it is almost an insult to the great author to assume 

 that he should have made such a mistake as to name a non- 

 parasitic bird such as the Long-tailed Skua parasiticus, when the 

 matter lay within the limits of his own personal experience, as 

 this apparently did. 



The name of the Common Skua must therefore stand as 

 Stercorarius parasiticus (L.). 



It remains now to find out which name for the Long-tailed 

 Skua has priority. Reichenow has recently * for this bird (at 

 the same time as he, unlike the author of ' Cat. Birds, British 

 Museum,' vol. xxv., correctly accepts the specific name para- 

 siticus, L., for the common species) readopted the specific name 

 "Stercorarius cepphus (Briinn.), 1764." I suppose that Reiche- 

 now in this refers to the bird described by Briinnich in his 

 ' Ornithologia Borealis ' (Hafnise, 1764) under the name Catha- 

 racta cepphus. But the whole description of this bird makes 

 it clear that Briinnich had before him not a Long-tailed Skua, 

 but a young specimen of the Common Skua. To prove this 

 the following quotation from the diagnosis need only to be 

 made : — 



" Capite colloque luteis fusco longitudinaliter maculatis ; 

 reliquum corpus ex luteo fuscoque undulatum, abdomine palli- 

 diore, macula alari alba, cauda subcequali" which is still further 

 elucidated by the full description in the same style. It is just 

 as clear that Briinnich's figure, although badly made, does not 

 represent a Long-tailed Skua.f 



Gatarractes parasita Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso-As. t. ii. pp. 310- 

 11) seems to refer to the Common Skua rather than to the 

 Long-tailed Skua, I to judge from the measurements of the tail- 

 feathers, and from the statements : " Alse . . . conipositae medias 

 rectrices fere sequantes." ..." Remiges . . . primaries, rhachibus 

 albis" as well as from the references and quotations. 



* ' Pie Kennzeichen der Vogel Deutschlands,' Neudainrn, 1902. 

 f Briinnich's names parasitica and coprotheres represent, of course, 

 respectively the light and dark forms of the adult bird S. parasiticus (L.). 

 | As is indicated in ' Cat. Birds, British Museum.' 



