BIRDS 443 



At some earlier period it had lost a foot, and, when its wing 

 was broken, the poor thing was heavily handicapped. I fancy- 

 that the good people who kept it for me a few days supplied it 

 with more shrimps than were good for a half-starved bird. At 

 all events it soon died. All those who were fortunate enough 

 to see these birds flying in life — I had not that advantage, 

 though only a mile away from Mr. Tom Mann when he fired 

 at an adult — assured me that they were much exhausted, which 

 the emaciated condition of their bodies fully bore out. It seems 

 probable that large numbers of these birds were migrating 

 across the Atlantic, when they got into the centre of a hurricane, 

 which forced them up on to our western shores, far out of the 

 usual line of their migration. I think it quite likely that the 

 two young birds killed in the Eden valley in 1890 and 1891 had 

 travelled into Lakeland from the North Sea, and that the coin- 

 cidence of the Skirwith bird being killed on the day on which 

 the species first appeared in the English Solway was purely 

 accidental. But this is a point on which every one must form 

 his own opinion, since it is entirely a matter for conjecture. 



The only specimen of Buffon's Skua that is known to have 

 been killed in Lakeland during the breeding season of the 

 Arctic bird was shot near Kirkandrews on the Eden, on the 3d 

 of June 1885. The bird had frequented the neighbourhood of 

 the river for a few days before it was shot on the lower waters 

 of the Eden by George Batey. It was secured the same day, 

 and sent to me in the flesh by my friend Dr. John Macdougall. 

 It proved on dissection to be a male. As a specimen in nuptial 

 plumage it would be uniform with most others, but for the 

 circumstance of some slight trace of immaturity on the lower 

 surface, a stage which Mr. Howard Saunders told me is rather 

 rare. The body was imperfectly nourished, and contained no 

 traces of food beyond three earthworms. Unusual as the 

 occurrence of Buffon's Skua in Britain undoubtedly is during 

 the summer months, yet several other examples have been 

 obtained in June. The late Mr. Rodd identified an adult shot 

 near the Lizard at the beginning of June. 1 Mr. R. Service has 

 recorded that another adult male was shot in Dumfriesshire on 

 1 Zoologist, 1877, p. 300. 



