119 
anotlicr in similar plumage : the central tail-feathers projected G’- 
aiul 6] in.’' hir. Daclc, as before stated, had also an adult and an 
immature example from Blakeney. The latter (which I presume 
to be of this species), now in my collection, is an extremely 
grey-coloured bird, the margins to the feathers of the back, wings, 
and upper and under tail-coverts being almost white ; the under 
parts mottled, more or less, with grey and white, showing scarcely 
a tinge of brown. The two middle tail-feathers project scarcely 
half-an-inch. From the great variation in the plumage at this 
early stage — in both Buffon’s and Itichardson’s Skuas, as well as 
the similarity in size, IMr. Saunders points out (see ‘ Proceedings of 
the Zoological Society,’ 187G, p. 327 ; and the ‘Field,’ January 17th, 
1880), as a certain distinction at any age, that in Buffon’s “the 
shafts of the two outer primaries are white, those of the remaining 
primaries being dusky j whiLst in liichardson’s Skua the shafts of 
uU the primaries are white throughout the greater part of their 
extent ; and even in young birds it is oidy towards the tips that the 
shafts are of a shade at all approaching that of tlie webs.” To this 
may also be added a hint supplied by another well-known authority 
in such matters, INlr. John Hancock, who states (‘Birds of 
Is orthumberland and Durham,’ p. 137) that, the two middle tail- 
feathers in Buffon’s Skua arc ohtuee in the young state, while in 
Ivichardson’s they arc always pointed. 
* Mr. 11. C. Hart, in his “Notes on tlie Ornithology of tlie British 
1 olar F.xpcilition, 1875-70” (‘ Zoologist,’ ISSO, p. 210), states from jHirsonal 
observation tliat tlie projecting lengtii of the middle tail-feathers in this 
Skua indicates tlie sex. In the male the 'projection is from seven to eight 
inches ; in the female six inches or a trifle over. 
