99 
XI. 
ON THE ABUNDANCE OF POMATOKIIINE 
AND SMALLER SKUAS ON THE NORFOLK COAST 
IN OCTOJ5ER AND NOVEMBER, 1879. 
Bv IIenuy Stevenson, F.L.S., V.P. 
Read ^th April, i88o. 
The f?roat ornitliological feature of the pa.sfc autumn has Been the 
apiioarauco in extraordinary numhor.s of Poinatorhine* Skuas 
fStcrcorarim i>omatorhinus), with Pvichardson’s+ fS. crepidaliutj 
and Billion’s Skuas ('S. ixircieiticii^J in very much smaller 
* Tins fine Skua was first sjiecifically distinguished by Temminck, who 
gave to it the scientific appellation of Lestris jyomarimis, but, until very 
recently, the derivation of tlie word Pomarine, or Poniarinus, has l>een a 
much disputed point amongst naturalists ; some even supposing it had 
reference to the country of Pomerania. In 1860, however, ]\I. Preyer, 
writing of his travels in Iceland, suggested that Temminck meant to refer 
to tlie peculiar lid or shield which covers the nasal opening, and once the 
clue had been thus obtained, Dr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological 
Society in London, pointed out that the term being compounded of two 
Greek words should, in proper classical form, read PoHm/orAimw— that is, 
Ttina, irwnaros,— operailut)i, a lid or cover ; and (itvhs,—nasyis, a nostril, 
and thus, at last, Temminck’s very apt designation was made plain enough. 
t To avoid confusion, I use the term Richardson’s Skua, as applied to 
this species, both as regards its light and dark forms, by Yarrell and others ; 
but a reference to the ‘ Fauna Boreali- Americana’ (part ii. p. 433, plate 73), 
shows that the specimen originally described by Swainson as Lestris 
richardsonii, was a wholly dark bird and probably— as he says it appeared 
to him— “ in full and mature plumage.” The name Richardson’s Jager, or 
Richardson’s Skua, therefore, properly belongs to the dark form only, at one 
time supposed to be specifically distinct from the Lestris ptarasiticus, or 
Arctic Gull, of Bewick and other British authors. 
II 
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