2 
ARCTIC SKUA. 
commanded the whole of the floe. After carefully watching the male through the glasses for nearly an 
horn, he nas at length marked down. A\hen driven up from the eggs he showed far greater animosity, 
dashing down within the distance of ten or twenty yards, hut not venturing to make the slightest attack on us 
or on a retriever following close to my heels. Being anxious to procure both male and female in order to 
investigate the colouring of the sexes, I experienced hut little ditliculty with the former ; but after the death of 
her mate the female became still more wary, and it was not till after several hours’ delay that a shot was 
obtained : these birds are figured in Plate III. A week or so later other nests were met with in the same 
district : in no instance were they placed in close proximity to one another or, indeed, within some hundreds of 
yards of the quarters of the Gulls. The birds varied considerably in their attitude towards intruders, some 
few pairs being far more demonstrative tban others, though I failed to recognize the audacity occasionally 
ascribed to tbem by some writers. 
Ihe young in tbe earliest stage were covered with a soot-coloured dowm. After the eggs were hatched 
the parent birds manifested increased disapproval at the invasion of their haunts. 
In most of the pairs Avhich came under observation, one of the birds was in the dark- and the other in the 
white-breasted plumage. A lew pairs Avere noticed in Avhich both birds exhibited the light-coloured plumage, 
though I AA as unable to detect a single couple Avhere both Avere black. 
In this district the principal food of the Arctic Skua is AA'ithout doubt the young of the salmon ; no other 
fish Avere detected in any of the specimens obtained on these moors. The stomach of CA'ery bird that AA^as 
inspected contained from tAvo to live smolts. 
The Common Gulls, Avhich breed in numbers round some of tbe lochs in the neighbourhood, capture these 
silA'cry little fish in the shalloAA^s of the rivers, and are forced to deliver up their prey Avhen attacked. 
On tAvo or three occasions, Avhile following the course of a gully or burn across the moors, I came suddenly, 
Avithin the distance of one hundred yards, upon a few pairs of Skuas resting quietly on the moss-coA’’ered mounds 
so commonly seen on these flats. On examining the spots from Avhich they rose, I discovered several castings 
composed entirely of small pieces of egg-shell. In almost every instance the fragments, so far as I Avas able to 
judge, appeared to haAm belonged to the eggs of sea-fowl, the Lesser Black-backed or Common Gull (in all 
probability the latter) having been the principal sufferers. On a subsequent occasion a more careful examination 
of the remains led to the belief that the nests of Grouse and PloA'er had been plundered, though it AA^as by no 
means easy to form a decided opinion. These mounds AA^cre evidently a favourite resort to Avhich the robbers 
retired for repose in order to digest their food. "When vicAved at a distance through the glasses, I noAV and then 
delected some of their number squatted on the moss Avith tbeir heads either draAvn doAvn betAA’een their shoulders 
or turned OA'er and partially concealed among the feathers of the back ; one or tAvo Avere, bovAcver, iiiA’ariably 
on the alert, and the scream of a passing Gull, or even the Ioav Avhistlc of a startled Plover or Dunlin, Avould 
instantly bring the Avhole party to their feet. 
During the latter part of May 1808 a fcAV single Skuas of this species Avere occasionally seen SAveeping over 
Loch Maree and other large sheets of fresh Avater in the Avest of Boss-sliire. I did not, hoAvever, meet Avitli any 
breeding-quarters in that locality, and it is jn-obable that these stragglers Avere from the Outer Hebrides. TJiough 
the tints on the breasts of the birds observed in this district Amried from Avhite to a pale clouded grey, I did not 
recognize a single dark specimen. 
Early in August a foAV of the Skuas in perfect breeding-plumage usually shoAV themselves off the south- 
east coast of Scotland, gradually increasing in numbers as the autumn adAmnccs. My notes jotted doAvn during 
several years contain references to the appearance of these birds on the coast of East Lothian at about the same 
date ; the numbers, hoAvcver, that approach the land A'ary considerably. In 187 1 I paid particular attention to 
this species during a three months’ residence at Canty Bay; a few extracts from my journal may give some idea 
of the habits of Skuas Avbile on their passage soutli for the Avinter. 
