BIRDS 441 



was only a bird of the second year. Another was felled by a 

 stone at Allonby, December 7, 1887, while feeding on a dead 

 pig upon the beach. The Walney Island fishermen sometimes 

 apply the name of ' Sea Hawk ' to this Skua, which they con- 

 sider a somewhat rare bird. Mr. Murray possesses an immature 

 individual, killed on our coast between Carnforth and Fleet- 

 wood. 



BUFFON'S SKUA. 



Stercorarius parasiticus (L. ). 



The first naturalist to ascertain that this Skua occasionally 

 visited Lakeland was the late Mr. Anthony Mason of Grange, 

 who identified three specimens shot in Morecambe Bay on the 

 25th of October 1859. Its presence does not seem to have 

 been detected on the English Solway until 1879; that, at 

 least, is my first positive date referring to the bird which Mr. 

 A. Smith shot on Rockliffe marsh in October that year, and gave 

 to Mr. Anson of Carlisle. Mr. Richard Mann recollects, how- 

 ever, that a large number of Skuas once appeared in the Solway 

 Firth after a severe gale. A good many were killed near 

 Allonby, and he believes some Buffbn's Skuas to have been 

 among the slain. This Skua was not, however, obtained in 

 young plumage until 1890. On the 5th of November that j r ear 

 the keeper engaged on the Musgrave property at Kirkoswald 

 came across a single Skua, swimming in a small pond near the 

 Eden. It was quite alone and appeared to be much exhausted. 

 He shot it, and gave it to Robert Raine, who kindly asked me 

 to identify it. It proved on dissection to be much emaciated. 

 On the 16th of October 1891 a very similar nestling bird was 

 shot at Skirwith, almost in the same part of the Eden valley as 

 the bird which had occurred the previous year. It was sent to 

 Hope, for whom I decided the species. It was rather darker 

 in ground colour than the bird killed at Kirkoswald, but was of 

 the same age and the same general appearance. Curiously 

 enough, on the very day that the Skirwith bird was shot in the 

 interior of Lakeland, a flight of this Skua appeared in the waters 

 of the English Solway. Mr. Williamson, junior, killed an old 

 bird deep in moult near Allonby on this date. His uncle, Mr. 



