THE LONG-TAILED SKUA. 787 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Summer-resident and passage- 

 migrant. Breeds many places Shetlands, a few Orkneys and I. and 

 0. Hebrides, and very sparsely Caithness and Sutherland. Else- 

 where passage -migrant chiefly autumn (Aug.-Oct.) in varying 

 numbers ; rare spring. Most regular east coast Great Britain, less 

 frequent south and west coasts, and Ireland. Sometimes inland. 

 Occasionally summer. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds Fseroes, northern Scandinavia, 

 north Russia, Jan Mayen, Franz -Josef Land, Spitsbergen, Novaya 

 Zemlia, coasts of Siberia to Commander Islands, Alaska, arctic 

 America and Greenland. In winter coasts of Europe and Africa 

 south to Cape of Good Hope, in Asia, Persian Gulf and along coasts 

 of eastern Asia to Australia, casual New Zealand and Chatham 

 Islands, in America to California, casually to Peru and Brazil (a 

 subspecies described from Australia (winter !) requires confirma- 

 tion). 



STERCORARIUS LONGICAUDUS 



464. Stercorarius longicaudus Vieill. — THE LONG -TAILED 

 SKUA. 



Stercorarius longicaudus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., 



xxxii, p. 157 (1819 — Northern regions). 



Stercorarius parasiticus (Linnaeus), Yarrell, in, p. 680 ; Saunders, p. 693. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Summer. — Fore-bead, 

 crown, nape and lores extending on to base of lower mandible and 

 a line under eyes brown-black, fore-head rather browner (forming 

 conspicuous cap) ; back and sides of neck, cheeks and often base of 

 throat straw-yellow (feathers as well as black ones of lower nape 

 slightly pointed) ; rest of upper-parts uniform grey-brown (consider- 

 ably paler than Arctic Skua) ; chin, throat and breast white ; sides 

 of breast and rest of under-parts pale grey-brown, varying individu- 

 ally in extent, being sometimes confined to sides and abdomen and 

 sometimes extending in rather paler shade over most of breast ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts uniform grey-brown as upper- 

 parts ; tail : base as upper-parts shading to blackish on distal 

 portion ; primaries brown-black on outer webs and tips, brown on 

 inner webs and white at extreme concealed bases, shafts of 2nd and 

 3rd straw -white, but sometimes that of 3rd pale brown, rest brown ; 

 secondaries brown-black on distal part of outer webs and part of 

 inner, otherwise grey-brown with white concealed bases ; primary- 

 coverts brown-black ; rest of wing-coverts grey-brown. This 

 plumage is acquired by complete moult apparently in early spring 

 but no adults in spring are available for examination. Another 

 moult takes place in autumn (Oct. seen and probably later) and 

 involves all body-plumage but material is insufficient to decide 

 when wings and tail commence to moult. Winter. — Crown brown- 

 black, feathers very narrowly tipped dull white ; feathers of back 



