BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 443 
Although the species is regarded as a " casual migrant in 
spring and autumn "* on the EngUsh side of the Solway, I 
suspect that the majority of the allegations of its local 
occurrence refer to Richardson's Skua, which in its autumnal 
journey southwards is from time to time mistaken for 
its larger congener. Mr. NichoFs record is however trust- 
worthy, for he " has exceptional opportunities for observing 
such birds, since his entire time is spent, summer and 
winter, in fishing and shooting in the waters of the Solway 
Firth. . . [He] ... is well acquainted with the other species of 
Skuas, and has himself shot both the Arctic and Buffon's 
Skua."t 
The Great Skua is rarely seen in winter off the coasts of 
Britain, where its breeding-places are confined to certain 
islands in the Shetlands group. Here it is rigidly protected. 
In the Faeroes, Iceland, and possibly on some islands 
north of Hudson Strait it also nests, migrating southwards 
in winter. 
THE POMATORHINE SKUA. 
Stercorarius pomatorhinus (Temminck). 
A rare autumnal and winter-visitor. 
On January 6th, 1863, William Hastings exhibited a 
" Pomarine Skua," shot near Glencaple Quay (Caerlaverock), 
at a meeting of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural 
History and Antiquarian Society. This bird is now in 
Kirkcudbright Museum (No. 288). Hastings remarked at the 
time " that the only specimens killed in Dumfriesshire or 
Galloway which had come under his notice as a preserver 
of birds for the last thirty years, was that now exhibited, and 
another which was kiUed about the same time by a lad, who 
* Trans. Carlisle, Nat. Hist. Soc, 1909, p. 90. 
t Fauna of Lakeland, p. 439. 
