THE rARASITiC SKUA. 
293 
they are also seen. But in winter they are all gone ; and 
in summer the places in which they are to be met with are 
the Orkney and Shetland Islands on one side, the outer 
Hebrides and some of the inner on the other. During 
the whole of the warm season they are there not un- 
common, and are as often seen in the sounds and the 
channels, as along the sandy shore. But the places in which 
they are to be met with in the greatest abundance are on the 
heaths at a distance from the sea, to which, however, they 
still resort, as three or four miles is to them less than three 
or four hundred paces to us, or at least to many people.' 
One might naturally suppose that this rover of the seas 
would breed on its shores, on clilTs, or unfrequented islands, 
but this does not appear to be the case, as the bird con- 
structs its nest on low, wet, mossy heaths, in exposed 
situations — at least such as have been observed to breed 
in the Scottish isles do so. The female generally lays two 
eggs, and has recourse to the same stratagem that the 
Plover employs to decoy intruders from her nest, which is 
often placed on lumps of peat, covered with heather, that 
emerge from a pool or bog. When a person or dog ap- 
proaches near to the places where the nest is built, the bird 
becomes bold and fierce, and strikes severely with the feet 
and bill. The eggs differ greatly in form, size, and colour ; 
the largest in Macgillivray's collection measured two inches 
and four and a half twelfths in length. The ground colour 
is brownish green or olivaceous, or greyish brown of any 
intermediate shade; they are spotted, and patched with 
dark and light brown, and purplish grey. 
Some naturalists have given the name Stercoraceous to 
this species, under the impression that it feeds on the dung 
of the Gulls and Terns which it pursues. But this is an 
error. That the same opinion prevails to some extent 
among the illiterate we may presume, from the popular 
names, Dung-bird and Dirten- Allen. 
Of the Parasitic Skua we need say but little ; it is aome- 
what larger than the species last described, but has not so 
bulky a body ; it is very similar to it in the colour of its 
plumage, and has, until within a recent period, been con- 
founded with it. Very few individuals have been obtained 
