SKUA. 



463 



chiefly resorts to the marshes and borders of small streams well clothed 

 with reeds and rushes, amongst which it is concealed and difficult to be 

 roused. It has all the manners and habits of the common gallinule, or 

 water-hen ; is said to make a nest composed of rushes, placed amongst 

 reeds on the surface of the water, and to lay seven or eight white eggs. 

 The young take the water as soon as hatched, and are said to be quite 

 black. It is found in France and Italy in the spring, and is there sup- 

 posed to be migratory. It is found also in the south of Russia, and the 

 western parts of Siberia. In England it has not been observed farther 

 north than Cumberland. 



SKRABE. — A name for the Puffin. 



SKUA {Lestris catarractes, Temminck.) 



Larus catarractes, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 226. 11. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 603. — Lath. Ind. 



Orn. 2. p. 818. 12 Catarractes et Catarracta, liaii, Syn. p. 128. A. 6.— Ib. 



129. 7 Will. p. 265.— Ib. (Angl.) p. 348. 349. t. 67.— Flem. ed. Phil. Jour. 



1. p. 97. and Br. Anim. p. 137 Larus fuscus, Briss. 6. p. 165. 4. — Ib. 8vo. 2. 



p. 405. — Lestris Catarractes, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 2. p. 792. — Le Goelandbrun, 



Buff. Ois. 8. p. 408.— Brown Gull, Albin, 2. t. 85 Bewick's Br. Birds, 2. p. 



233.— Skua Gull, Br. Zool. 2. No. 343.— Ib. fol. 140. t. L. 6 Arct. Zool. 2. 



No. 531. A Lath. Syn. 6. p. 385. 14 Lewin's Br. Birds, 6. t. 211. — Wale. 



Syn. 1. t. 117. 



Provincial. — Sea Eagle. Bonxie. Port Egmont Hen. 



This species is rather superior in size to the raven ; weight three 

 pounds ; length two feet ; the bill is an inch and three quarters long, 

 black, and much hooked at the end ; is covered for more than half its 

 length with a kind of black cere ; the upper part of the head, neck, 

 back, and wings, deep brown ; the feathers margined with ferruginous ; 

 about the forehead and chin tinged with ash-colour ; the breast and all 

 beneath, pale dusky ferruginous ; the quills are brown, white at the 

 base ; tail deep brown ; roots and shafts white ; the legs are black, 

 rough, and scaly ; talons black, strong, and much hooked. 



This is a bold rapacious bird, and preys on the lesser gulls, as well as 

 fish; is said to attack the eagle, and even man, if he approaches their 

 nest. It breeds in the Orkney islands, and is much esteemed in the 

 Isle of Foulah, from a supposition that it defends the flocks from the 

 eagle: is rarely seen in the south. One in the museum of Dr. Latham, 

 was killed at Greenwich; and *the only other instance we are furnished 

 with, of this species being observed in the south of England, is one 

 that was shot at Sandwich, in Kent, in the winter of 1800, the head 

 and legs of which were sent to us for examination, by Mr. Boys. We 

 are informed by Mr. Fleming, that the Skua breeds in Bonas-hill, and 

 Foulah, in Zetland, and that there is no distinction of plumage in 

 the sexes. The remarkable hooked talons, especially that of the inner 



