101 
rhino and oilier Skuas. Willi calm sea.s and a superabundance of 
food one can imagine no inslinclive force, at that period of the 
season, suflicient to induce these birds to quit their “ happy 
hunting-grounds” and resume their southward movement, and thus, 
their accumulated forces, within a certain area, (instead of passing 
d.iy by day in their accustomed flocks) seem to have been suddenly 
exposed, in the North Sea, to gales of unusual severity, by which 
they weie driven upon our shores nolens vulcns , — simultaneously 
almost from the Tees to Lynn Wash, and thence along the 
projecting coast of Norfolk to IJrcydon and the mouth of the 
Yare. 
That some Skuas migrate earlier than others is shown by the 
large (locks of liichardson’s species, which occurred off the York- 
shire coast prior to the great flight of romatorhines, and my 
theory is, I Uiink, fairly borne out by the following dates of their 
appearance in localities north and south of this county ; for 
although Mv. T. E. Luckley, in a letter to Professor Newton, 
states that four Pomatorhine Skuas (recognised by their peculiar 
tail-feathers) had been seen on the east coast of Sutherland, about 
ten miles inland, on the 13th of October, and .Afr. C. A. I’arker 
(‘ Zoologist,’ ISSO, p. lOU) mentions a single adult bird as killed 
on October 16th oil the west coast of Cumberland, yet I find in the 
‘ Field’ of October 25th the record of a Pomatorhine and a 
Pichardson’s Skua shot by Air. Laxter, of Leytoiistone, when near 
Southend-on-Sea, as early as October 7th. 
Again, in the ‘Field’ of November 8th, ten Pomatorhine ami 
two Ivichardson’s Skuas are stated to have been shot between the 
14th and 18th of October (the commencement of the chief influx 
111 Norfolk) in Christchurch and Poole Harbours, and in Somerset- 
shire Air. Cecil Smith, in the ‘ Field’ of November 1st, says, that 
he received on the 17th of October a fully adult Pomatorhine 
Skua shot, at AYcston-super-AIare, on the same day, and Air. 
C. AI. Prior (‘Zoologist,’ 1880, p. 109) notes the capture of one 
near Ledford on the 18th, all of which seem to bear out the 
conclusion that the ordinary migration of those birds commences 
early in the autumn, and is doubtless continuous, should nothing 
out of the ordinary course arrest their progress. Here, also, 1 
should mention that the only Lichardson’s Skua that came under 
ui^ own obscrv'ation this last autumn, though others werc killed 
